


Eisenkreuz Imouto

by Kuugenthefox



Category: Girls und Panzer
Genre: F/F, Yuri
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-23
Updated: 2017-12-01
Packaged: 2018-10-22 19:22:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 84,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10703487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kuugenthefox/pseuds/Kuugenthefox
Summary: Ooarai is in dire straits. The newest and most extensive tankery competition that Japan has ever seen has proven to be more than Miho can handle with just her tactical genius. There is only one person she can rely on in her time of need - but as fate wills it, this person is the supreme commander of another school.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: This is the sister story to Tea & Cola. To get the full experience please read both. Both can be enjoyed without the other but make each other more enjoyable.

“Ah, they're a nuisance, an **eyesore** , an **eyesore** , an **eyesore** , **eyesore** , **eyesore**!” Momo Kawashima, PR manager of the Ooarai student council, had another fit of rage. “How is that shit allowed?! We should complain! Otherwise we're gonna lose! Everyone is going to lose! That's just unfair!”

About twenty meters away, on the ground in front of the tank she herself commandeered, sat the general commander of Ooarai High School, Nishizumi Miho – and she was so deep in thought that Momo's outburst went unnoticed.

“Lady Nishizumi, how is our situation?” Yukari Akiyama asked her; loader of team Anglerfish and close aide to general commander Nishizumi.

“Not good.” Miho answered without looking up. When Yukari knelt next to her, Miho could guess what she was doing and reached for the bottle of water she was being offered. “Thank you, Yukari.”

Yukari smiled and felt her heart skip a beat. The competition had been a blessing for her, being able to use her considerable military otaku knowledge and expertise to leverage it in the field into practical advantages. Being right by Miho's side and being looked at for advice and guidance by someone she admired was also breathtaking as an experience.

“We will be drinking dust and oil soon.” Caesar, Takako Suzuki, reported in as well. She and Saemonza, Kiyomi Sugiyama, were in charge of rationing for the army – both of them part of the Hippo team, commander and gunner respectively.

“Talk to Nakajima and coordinate an expedition to the nearest river with Team Rabbit.” Miho had her hands full with everything that was going on and no longer afraid to have her direct subordinates operate independently and with responsibility. Leading an army in a prolonged battle was completely different from the relatively short tankery matches before. It was completely unlike anything she had ever experienced.

Supplies were short and while they had completely eradicated Yogurt Academy two days prior, it had taken an unexpected toll on them. Ooarai, while the national champions, was at a **distinct** disadvantage because they had only eight tanks, and of those, Anteater Team's Type-3 Chi-Nu was being repaired by the Leopon team members, all of them doubling as the school's mechanics.

A primary advantage was that they were a school with a Japanese theme, so they had been able to avoid language studies and focus on practice, including physical and infantry drills for those that were able. But at the same time, their tanks were a completely mixed bag, so Japan's SDF was not financially backing them, like they were backing Chi-Ha-Tan. Having to pay for most basic supplies and uniforms out of their own pocket was a blow for Ooarai at first and without the Tankery Federation itself stepping in to act as an emergency sponsor, the school would have started crippled.

“Yukari?” Miho looked up from the heavily drawn on map of the battlegrounds they were on. “Can you find Hana, Erwin and-” Miho needed a second to remember who the last of the three people she needed right now was. “Piyotan.”

“At once!” Dashing off and shouting names, Yukari served Miho more like a dutiful and completely obedient dog than a real vice-commander.

“Trouble?” Someone sat down next to Miho, munching on a ration cracker that tasted not much better than cardboard.

“Mako. It's a surprise to see you up at this hour.” It was still before noon, but it was cold out and the wind was howling. The weather was going to get worse – the three girls from the morals committee had put in the time to learn a fair deal about the weather and predicting it with whatever gadgets they could get their hands on.

“Don't treat me like I hibernate during the day.” Looking at the map, Mako did feel like going back to her tent and sleep. It wasn't just **her** tent, though. She shared it with three other people – the girls from team Mallard, on Mako's request. As many excuses as she made, she didn't want to trouble Miho by just rolling over when the marching order came down. “Maybe… I do hibernate during the day, but I just can't rest when everyone is on edge.”

“We're dangerously low on supplies. With Pravda, Kuromorimine and Alliance One fighting over almost all of the crate drops, we haven't had much luck securing one.”

“Can't we take supplies from the other small schools?” Maho was usually not involved in strategy. She drove Miho where she needed to be, when she had to.

“The battlefield is much bigger than we initially thought so it is hard to even find them – much harder still to take their base. Taking on a larger school is almost suicide. We can fight the less experienced schools like Chi-Ha-Tan, but even one or two casualties would put a serious dent in our fighting ability, so we need to pick our fights very carefully.”

“Sounds like a hassle.”

“I still have some plans to turn things around, but especially Alliance One is making me worry. Based on the information we got, even Pravda and Kuromorimine are wary of them. They have more tanks than everyone else, more supplies than everyone else, and they have two very good commanders that even out each other's flaws.”

“We should hit them at night. That way they don't see it coming.”

“The issue is that unless we can take them **all** out, they will just wear us down in attrition. In a normal match, that would not be a problem because we could eventually just wear them down with hit and run tactics, but they can actually repair their tanks in this scenario.”

“Super hassle.” Mako mindlessly munched on the ration bar and wished she had ketchup or something to mask the bland taste.

“You're right.” Miho was glad that everyone around her hadn't really changed that much. They bickered over the last bit of real food and got into arguments over small stuff, but when she called them to arms, all of that was forgotten and Ooarai functioned like a well oiled machine of destruction.

“Lady Nishizumi, I mean, Commander! I brought them!” Yukari, ragged of breath and sweating badly, arrived with the three people that Miho had requested her to find.

“Jeez, Yukari, I told you to take better care of yourself.”

Mako watched Yukari's heart nearly pop out of her mouth when Miho gave the half empty bottle of water to Yukari – the same bottle Miho had used to drink. _Miho is so dense, she can probably reflect tank shells. I feel bad for Yukari_.

“Sit.” Miho pulled a piece of paper, folded a dozen times over, from her back pocket and unfolded it in front of her on the ground.

The three that were summoned, Hana, Erwin and Piyotan, all knew what Miho would summon them for. They all had one specific skill that nobody else had in their little army. Language. Hana spoke almost fluently Russian. Erwin had managed to attain fluency in German just in time for the competition and Piyotan spoke English. There was one more, Shinobu Kawanishi from the old volleyball team and now team Duck – she had specialized in Italian. It was Ooarau's combined effort to cover the languages used by the large schools that were opposed to them.

“I would understand calling one of us here – but why all three?” Erwin had just sat down to eat a meal; or at least what passed for a meal now.

“I decided that with the threat of Alliance One, we have to reach out and cease operations as a single entity. Erwin, I need you to talk to… my sister.”

“Lord Maho, from the Black Forest?” Erwin knew exactly what Kuromorimine was referencing.

“Yes. Hana, you have been at the radio, listening in on Pravda, right?”

“As much as I can.”

“How are things for them?”

“They are struggling against Kuromorimine. They have the upper hand whenever they fight on the terrain of their choosing, but Kuromorimine has the superior tactics and tanks. They are fighting an uphill battle. I didn't want to come to you with half information alone, but if you are talking about alliances – Pravda had chatter over radio that they are going to be putting down Kuromorimine soon and for good. They keep using a word I don't understand and I can't find it in my dictionary, but I think they plan to team up with someone.”

“That is not good. Alliance One is already a very big problem. If Pravda allies with someone… maybe Bellwall or Maginot… but in the worst case scenario, they could even approach Alliance One...” Miho rambled by herself until Erwin called out for her. “I'm sorry. Erwin. The threat of Pravda allying with someone will be an excellent point of pressure when the time comes. Keep it in mind.”

“Sure.”

“Uhm… why am I here?” Piyotan, the gray-haired girl from team Anteater, was not very comfortable with being in this rather special circle around the commander herself.

“How good exactly is your English?”

“[I can hold a conversation about any kind of tank just fine… or most subjects, really… I practiced online a lot.]” Replying **in** English, the girl was suddenly faced with a lot of admiration; something she usually never had to deal with.

“I need you to perpetuate false information. We don't know what channels Alliance One communicates on, but we do know what channels are being watched by other schools. I need you to spread information that makes other schools think that there is internal discord. Weaken the power of their image. The longer they remain unchallenged and are able to amass supplies like they have been, the more difficult it will be to target them at all.”

“Couldn't she just infiltrate them if she's that good at English?” Erwin felt a certain passion inside her when Yukari forced herself into the small circle, right next to her, having finally recovered.

“That's no good.” Yukari didn't look at Erwin directly but kept her eyes glued on Miho. “Even if Saunders and Gloriana have like 300 people together, they will know an outsider right away. They all train together.”

“Yukari is right. Infiltration is almost impossible. Sabotage is well within limits, but outright infiltration just will not work with the limit number of people participating from each school.” Miho had thought that, maybe, just maybe, it could work if she constantly were to change uniforms and present herself to Saunders as someone from Gloriana and the other way around. But at the end of the day, Piyotan was not an experienced spy. It was not going to work.

“What should I talk about on radio?” Piyotan wanted to be useful.

“Pretend you are complaining to someone else about Gloriana. Saunders' girls are much more likely to openly complain due to the nature of their commander.”

“Miho, is that all?” Hana wanted to go back. She had been teaching Saori little bits of Russian on the side in case something happened to her and the team needed someone else that understood Pravda.

“Erwin, I need you to stay. Piyotan and Hana, you're free to leave.”

While Hana and Piyotan went to take care of their own business, Yukari asked about herself. “What about me?” When she spoke, Erwin's right hand tensed up a little. Nobody but Caesar knew about Erwin's feelings and even though she knew they were completely one-sided and would never come to fruition, she refused to let go of them.

“It would be great if you could go to team Leopon and ask them how repairs are coming along.”

“Roger!” Yukari soared on her feet and bolted immediately. Erwin didn't flinch but wished she could have looked after her.

“You don't have to pretend when it is just you and me,” Miho said and felt awkward when Erwin gave her a strange look. “It's probably weird to talk to me about that when I'm your commander, but… you like Yukari, right?”

Erwin unintentionally opened her mouth and no words came out, only stuttered sounds of trying to refute that. But seeing Miho's awkward yet knowing smile, Erwin gave up. Rapidly moving over the grassy ground and sitting next to her commander, Erwin stared at her. “How the **heck** do you know?” She paused. “Ma'am. How the **heck** do you know, Ma'am?”

“Lots of little things I guess. I wanna say intuition, but that's not much of an answer I guess. I can probably guess what you think. That she's so fixated on me that nothing you say will get through to her.” Miho glanced at Erwin from the side. “I am not **that** dense.”

“You're pretty good at pretending though.”

“I'm the commander. If I get involved with my subordinates, I'll have complaints of favoritism on my hands. And it would compromise my ability to make decisions in battle. It's one thing to ignore that in a normal match, but out here, where losing someone means they won't be around for a week, maybe more, maybe **much** more… that compromises people.”

“I didn't even think about this half as deeply.”

“There is someone I like, anyway. And they're not going to this school.”

_That has to be that Erika girl from Kuromorimine that always hangs around her sister_. “You're right. Talking about this with my commander is **really** weird.”

“Then let's move on to work. We do have the numbers for Kuromorimine's primary channel, so contacting them will be easy. I didn't have time to learn German like Maho so I need you to be my translator.”

“I can do that. I am not **that** good, though, so I'll need a few seconds to put the Japanese into German in my head.”

“That's fine.”

=== Eisenkreuz Imouto ===

Two girls in German Bundeswehr uniforms bowed before Maho. “{Pravda escaped ous.}”

“{That's not unexpected. When did you cease pursuit?}” Maho addressed the two without even looking at them – instead, she controlled documents that Erika had brought to her an hour earlier.

“{At 1048 hours. We lost Pravda at the following coordinates-}” One of the girls tried to give an extended report.

“{Sector 46, northern borderlands, just beyond artificial river number five.}”

The two girls looked at each other and felt like they let their commander down. “{Commander, we accept full responsibility for the mission's failure.}”

“{If you have enough time to talk about nonsense like taking responsibility you should use that time to assist the others with securing the tents.}”

“{Understood!}”

Maho had adopted a policy of _First and Last, Results matter and nothing else_. After getting way too much into character as the Commander of the German Forces, a few of her trusted subordinates had told her that she was coming on much too strongly, even for her hardcore fans – Erika excluded. When someone failed a mission, under regular Kuromorimine rules there would be punishment waiting for them. But Maho did away with that. _If you have time to apologize you have time to work_ , was something she said a lot lately.

The battle against Pravda was not going badly, but not nearly as well as she had hoped. Things were much worse in general than she had hoped. When news of Saunders and Gloriana allying had reached her, she felt genuinely worried about her school and team. But Maho had herself under control. She wanted to make her mother proud, but when she was honest with herself, she was in a little over her head in this competition. Pravda was not as weak, not here, as she had assumed, and trying to take them out, focusing on them entirely almost, was backfiring. On Kuromorimine and Pravda both. She was almost sure that there was no winning chance if things continued like this, not with the Allied Powers being a gargantuan damokles sword over her head – over everyone's head.

“[Erika!]” Maho shouted and when her second in command was not there after ten seconds, Maho stormed out of the command tent and looked around. In front of everyone else, she was still the cold, distant Maho that they all knew and respected – although few _liked_ her for it. Spotting Koume Akaboshi, someone that was close to Erika, Maho whistled loud and instantly had the attention of everyone around her. “{Koume. With me.}” Waving the girl over, Maho had her follow her into the command tent.

“{Commander Maho-}”

“{Where is Erika? She is supposed to be here and discuss strategy with me.}”

Koume looked worried – not for herself but for Maho. Everyone could see how hard Maho was working and they all agreed on one thing; it was **too** hard. If you pull a bow's string back further and further, eventually the string will snap, no matter what. “{Commander, captain Erika and 26 of our soldiers are on a mission you personally ordered. The mission is-}”

And now it came back to Maho. She **did** order Erika to go out and hunt for supply crates. “{I remember. Dismissed.}” Maho sat down on a chair and rubbed her temple. When Koume didn't leave, she sighed. “{Koume, I said you are dismissed.}”

Koume looked around, peeked outside and then closed the tent. “Maho… everyone is worried. You are working too hard. Orders are contradicting each other since yesterday. When was the last time you slept?”

“{Mind your words, soldier. Leave.}” Maho felt a bit of anger well up inside, but more so than anger, she knew that Koume was absolutely right. But while Kuromorimine was well trained, well disciplined and skilled in combat, there was almost no one she could trust with day to day operations. Erika was too impulsive and the Kuromorimine students wouldn't listen to a transfer student like Alice so easily, not yet. Sheska was a bad idea, primarily because she was like Erika – but worse. And Koume was just a driver. _I wish I could be as trusting of my girls as Miho… hah… Miho. I wonder what you're doing right now?_

“How are you going to face everyone if you make a critical mistake in battle because you are completely overworked?”

Maho had enough. “If there were suitable task masters to relieve me of some of the administrative work I would have them do so.”

“If they do not understand now, you should explain it to them.”

Maho wanted to tell her off but she could see where this was leading. It was true that she was not doing the perfect job she wanted to do. Far from it, actually. On the first few days, she had been up for 22 hours each, constantly receiving reports, handling matters, giving orders and leading excursions. Right now she did not even have the ability to lead in battle anymore – she was too tied down at the base with everything that was going on. And this was hurting Kuromorimine in combat against Pravda.

_It was my error to try and shoulder everything myself without thinking to train people to cover these tasks. Still… there is so much more to do than I thought there would be. Organizing rationing, repairs, keeping stock of war material, reading reports on enemy encounters, leading the troops, handling disputes between my soldiers, handling communication with other armies, scheduling activities on the base itself, preparing plans for excursions, reading reports on non-combat matters… I could easily fill thirty hours a day with working like this_. _But I cannot just up and go and say **Okay, I was wrong, I need help**. Mother would be incredibly disappointed. And I believe it would be a serious blow to morale as well_. _But…_ “If you are so eager to do so, you should volunteer yourself.”

“Consider me volunteered, commander.” Koume was a sweet girl but she knew when she had to stand her ground.

Maho pretended to be displeased but deep down, she was very glad. _I think Koume knows that I cannot ask for help._ “And what might you be volunteering for?”

“Taskmaster of Supply and Material.”

_That covers everything from rationing to keeping stock of our things and ordering repairs. That would be a big burden off my shoulders. Thank you Koume. And I am sorry I cannot tell you that._ Due to her mother's brutal doctrine of labeling emotions as bothersome, Maho was supposed to always be like that – a machine of war. _I wonder what made mother change so much. I remember that when I was very little, she was much more caring._

“{Maho, are you inside?}” Alice's German was a bit rocky at times and she tended to forget words. She was exceptionally smart, but she was also, as it turned out, exceptionally bad at German. The way words were pronounced just gave her trouble and the grammar was a living nightmare that followed her around.

“{I'm having an important discussion. Wait outside.}” Maho didn't want to be interrupted. Waving Koume closer so they could keep speaking Japanese – Maho just didn't have the energy left to make lengthy explanations in German – Maho asked her how much she understood of the job she was volunteering for.

Alice's bundeswehr uniform, which had to be adjusted quite a lot for her small size, was covered in dirt, top to bottom. An unfortunate mishap earlier when she jumped down from her tank and fell. “{I just want to give me report and go get me changed, Maho.}”

“[ **My** report. Get **my** self changed.}” A blonde girl corrected her. “{Your German is terrible.}” She didn't have much respect for Alice – not outside actual combat or scouting operations.

“{I'm still your superior. Treat me with respect. I won't say it twice.}” Alice complained back.

“{Yes, yes.}”

“{One yes is enough!}

“{Alice.}” Maho's voice came out of the tent. “{Get in here before you and Sheska get yourselves in trouble.}” Maho was relieved to find out that Koume understood a lot of what it meant to handle matters regarding rationing. “{Koume, you may leave and close the front when you do.}”

The moment Alice was inside and the tent was closed up again, Maho reverted back to Japanese. “What now, Alice? You were just on a routine scouting mission.”

“The weather is going to go bad. Really bad. The administration is handing out rain supplies for that already. I didn't wait for your approval to send out a single team to get them. They declared on all channels that nobody is to fire on a tank carrying supplies before the storm hits.”

“You should still come to me first with this. But good work. How much of a storm are they expecting?”

“Something big enough to call it **very bad**.”

Maho sighed and leaned back in her chair. The exhaustion was written all over her face.

“Maho. I know I only transferred here a few months ago and there are a lot of third years that don't respect me, but… you should give me a bigger command. At least authority over some aspects of day to day operations. I am not being used to my potential. I know I can handle at least things like reading reports and formulating strategy. Even Nishizumi strategy! My mother doesn't have to know that I am the one that did it.”

“You would betray your style?”

“I am not betraying anything!”

“You really just want to fight against Miho, don't you?”

“I won't deny that it would be nice to fight Ooarai… but I'm a Kuromorimine student now. I want us to win.”

“Your Shimada Squad has helped us out in some rather dangerous situations with Pravda, I must accept that.”

“Then-”

“Are you confident that the others will be listening to you if I expand your command?”

“I commanded a team of university students. They'll fall in line.”

“Spoken like a real commander.”

“I am a real commander.”

“You were not. But you will be now. I am putting you in charge of six additional tanks – draw up a list of 18 of your preferred picks and I will decide from there. Additionally, to go with your extended command, I am putting you in charge of foreign intelligence and evaluation of combat reports.” Alice seemed relieved, which surprised Maho. “I thought you would be worried about having so much extra work.”

“I was… a little bored.”

“Bored?”

“You kept doing everything. I thought you would collapse if you kept going with that. What should I tell Miho if she learns that I sat around and did nothing while her older sister collapsed from overwork?”

“You really care about Miho, don't you?” Maho wanted to come across as friendly but her voice somehow carried real threat.

“I respect Miho a lot. And she's my rival.”

“I am not sure our mothers would be happy with this sort of development.”

“Why not?”

Maho was taken aback by this question. “Well… my mother doesn't seem to have a very good opinion of the Shimada style and your mother.”

_Ah, she doesn't know._ Alice was in moral peril. While her mother did openly tell her to destroy the Nishizumi style and such, there was another side to all of that – one that was not on display in public and one that, Alice was sure about that, was not supposed to be known to Nishizumi Shiho or her daughters. Alice had learned about all of that on a rainy day at home, when she was exceptionally bored and somehow ended up going through her mother's yearbooks where she found some very interesting photos of her mother's teenage self.

“Mother has a very… special view of Shiho Nishizumi.” Alice thought that was vague enough. She didn't want to lie to Maho, but she also didn't want to blurt out secrets that her mother seemed to want to keep to herself.

“In any case, do you need me to explain in detail what your new duties entail?”

“I did just say I commandeered a university team.”

“I take that as a no then.” Maho pointed to a large pile of documents. “Most of those are observational records from our scouts. Information is powers these days and knowing the exact extend of our enemies powers is important.”

Alice walked over to the pile and flipped through some of it and looked like she regretted taking this job for a moment. “Why are we not allying with Ooarai?”

“Didn't you say you wanted to fight Miho?”

“Yes! But Pravda is really strong and Ooarai only has eight tanks. Miho is a great commander, but even she can't beat numerical advantages like these in a situation like this. And we could really use their expertise. Everything hinges on you, me and Erika right now, and it makes combat a bit difficult because we are using so many more tanks than we would in a regular match.”

_I can't believe this is the same girl that barely opened her mouth at school. She seems more at home on the battlefield than she is in a peaceful environment. I guess that is the Shimada style for you_. “Kuromorimine is in a position of power. We are holding back Pravda and even the Allied Powers don't dare to just attack us outright. To ask Ooarai to ally with us would be to show weakness.”

“Your Nishizumi style can be a real issue sometimes.”

“It would be different if Miho asked us first, but… I don't think she will do that.”

“Miho really struggles with asking others for help.”

“We had to force our way into her match with you.”

“It was a surprise to see all those schools come together to save Ooarai.”

_I would absolutely love it to fight together with Miho. To share a command with her. To… be with her the same way the commanders of Saunders and Gloriana are. Although that can never happen. Miho is a kind girl so she probably wouldn't say anything, but I bet she'd be disgusted to the core if she knew her older sister feels that way about her. Mother would probably disown me on the spot, too, if it somehow became public. Not to mention that she would tell me that I have to carry on the family line… ha… I wish I hadn't remembered that just now_.

“You should get some rest, Maho. You look really tired.” Alice was a girl that could adapt. When she commandeered the team at selection university, she really didn't have much contact with the women there. But joining Kuromorimine was different. The girls there didn't respect her. They didn't treat her like she was this special girl that had skipped grades and been to university. Not even the first years cared. Alice found herself in a world where she wasn't special anymore – so she toughened up a lot. She had to earn the respect of the other girls all the way from the bottom. She was just a simple tank commander when she started at the school and she had rapidly worked her way up by providing results. She still didn't do so well at school in terms of social behavior, but she had friends and she had a lot of respect from other first years and even a number of second years. But whenever she stepped out of the classroom and into the hangar, or rode on a tank, her worries and quietness flew away.

“If **you** are telling me to rest I must look like I am with one foot in the grave.”

“You **are** pale.”

Maho was shocked to hear that. “I am pale?” Looking at a completely plain mirror that was hung from a steel string above a small, portable sink, Maho found it terrifying that she indeed was a bit pale.

“It will be almost impossible to conduct operations during the incoming storm, so you should be able to get some decent rest then.”

“[Kommandeur Nishizumi!]” A girl was shouting from outside the tent.

“{Come inside}” Maho quickly adjusted her posture and then glanced at Alice. “{Alice, you may leave.}” Looking at the girl that had now stepped into the tent, Maho waited for her to report.

“{We just received a message from Ooarai, over radio. The contents of the message as the following.}”

About two minutes later, Maho arrived at the radio tent, trying hard to control her breathing hut slightly out of breath after marching over there on the double. “{Sit rep.}” Maho clicked her tongue when everyone jumped up and saluted. “{I said sit rep, **now**.}” _I thought I trained you to ignore formalities in emergencies_.

Seconds later, Maho took the radio up herself. Due to the nature of all the schools being fluent in Japanese, as this was Japan, whenever a Japanese themed school engaged with a school of a different language, that other language had to be used for communications at all times. “{This is general commander of the German army, Nishizumi Maho. Identify yourself with rank, name and what you want.}”

Several kilometers away, inside a much smaller tent, sat Erwin and Miho stood next to her. A brief exchange, Erwin told Miho was Maho had said.

“Proceed as planned.” Miho had already discussed some of the most obvious things with Erwin. She herself didn't speak anything but Japanese, which meant she had to rely on translators. Luckily for her, without having to tell anyone, she had access to the four primary languages of the big schools.

“{Commander of Hippo squad, this is Erwin Ro-}” Erwin cleared her throat. _I can't identify myself as Erwin Rommel. They'll think I'm freaking nuts_. “{Commander of Hippo Squad, Matsumoto Riko. I speak with full authority for the Japanese armed forces under the flag of Ooarai, given by general commander Nishizumi Miho.}” _This is more difficult than I thought._ Erwin figured out just now that _learning_ German and _using_ German were pretty different things.

“Tell them we would like to open official negotiations regarding an official coalition of armed forces against the threat of Alliance One.” Miho was glad that Maho was on the other end. She hoped that she was anticipating things right and that Maho was secretly hoping to ally with her but could not because Kuromorimine could not possibly be seen asking a smaller school for help, national champions or not.

_How do I…_ Erwin needed a moment to put her thoughts together, fumbled her words as she muttered a brief practice sentence and then got conveyed what Miho was saying to Kuromorimine to the best of her ability.

There was a long moment of silence from Kuromorimine and Erwin grew a little nervous because of it. She was usually very confident, almost mockingly so, but having Miho depend on her like this – and having Ooarai's fate in the hand of her linguistic skills and not just her skills as a radio operator. _I definitely said it right. I think. Unterbreitet… nachricht.. offizielles angebot… I don't see anything wrong_.

“{Negotiations over radio are not binding. Sector 23, regional coordinates 45.27.112 in one hour. Kuromorimine does not tolerate tardiness.}” Maho answered herself.

There was no rule that negotiations had to be made in person, but Maho saw a chance to see Miho and more over, she didn't want to rely on a translator whose German felt a bit wonky. It was, technically, sound, but awkward. Like someone who had learned it second-hand or from games.

“That went better than I expected.” Translating what Maho had said to Miho, Erwin then took off the headphones and reported to Miho. “I'm still gonna have to come, right?”

“Diplomatic talks still have to be in the non-Japanese language.” Miho personally disliked that rule. It made things unnecessarily difficult for Japanese themed schools. It was simulating a realistic war experience, to a degree, but she still disliked it. “Yukari was our top student in physical drills. Find her and Akebi. We are not going to that diplomatic meeting without insurance.” Miho smiled at Erwin just then. “I'm glad I have someone I can rely on to talk to Kuromorimine.”

“Ha. It's nothing. Just a bit of foreign language.” Erwin would never show that she was not actually one hundred percent confident in both her language skills and her ability to negotiate properly. Ninety percent, yes, but not a round hundred.

Setting out to find Anzu, who Miho trusted to keep things running while she was gone, Miho looked forward to seeing her sister. It had been a while, months in fact. And while she wrote letters to her and sometimes called, they hadn't been face to face until the day before the competition. And even then they didn't have the luxury of time to be themselves.

Preparations moved along swiftly. Miho had instantly decided to move with a light guard. There **was** a possibility, a very small one, that Kuromorimine and Maho were leading her into a trap, but that would be disgraceful for Kuromorimine and the Nishizumi style. Miho mostly ruled that out, but not completely. Yukari and Akebi were armed and ready to go in record time, the top two in terms of physical fitness and firing accuracy with anti-person arm. Yukari beat Akebi slightly in the physical tests but Akebi had a higher total accuracy as the gunner of the Duck team.

Ooarai had no jeeps or automobiles they could use for transport; everything they did need to transport was pulled by their tanks. Using her own tank to travel to sector 23, a completely flat patch of land that was covered in dirt from previous tank battles, Miho rode inside the tank instead of on top of it. Mako served as her driver because, among all of the drivers in Ooarai, Miho trusted her the most to get her out of there in case it **was** an ambush. Or something happened along the way.

Akebi's sensitive nature played well into her current job. Sharpshooting and recon. She had good eyes and she had very good reflexes. She was tall, a fast runner and had deadly accuracy with her sniper rifle, the only one that Ooarai had. She did poorly in skirmishes and her nerves were not the best when up close to the enemy, but with her long blonde hair in a steep ponytail and wearing the modern JSDF uniform, she looked imposing.

Yukari was almost ten centimeters shorter than her, but her small frame belied her physical strength. In arm wrestling, she was unrivaled and she was the only one that could effortlessly carry two rifles, two hand guns and several grenades at the same time. Some of the first years had taken to calling her the Nishizumi Arsenal because she was a walking arsenal at Miho's command.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Mako was not all that keen on teaming up with Kuromorimine.

“We're past the point of being able to entertain only the good ideas. And Kuromorimine places such emphasis on victory… if they invited us to a diplomatic meeting and then shot us they would immediately turn everyone else against them. They could never win then.”

“You told the others to spread word on the radio if we don't come back, didn't you?” Mako put her foot to the pedal and the tank sped up. They were ahead of schedule and intentionally so – Miho wanted to be there first as a show of good faith.

Up on the tank, Akebi peered into the distance. There was smoke. “Miho, there's a battle happening in sector… I can't tell if it is 17 or 16. It might be right on the border. Beyond the pine forests and river seven.” Giving her report to Miho via intercom, Akebi focused more on what she could make out in the distance before she went flat on the tank's surface. Her rather big breasts often got in the way during physical drills and while sniping, but she had adjusted her gun for her changed head position for just that reason.

“Can you tell who is fighting?”

“Give me a moment!” She liked being a sniper. She quickly lost her nerves inside a tank when they came under fire, but as a sniper, she was much more distanced “It looks… like a Somua S35. A french tank.”

“What is Maginot doing so far south?” Miho talked to herself. _Last we saw them they were all the way up in sector 28. Did they move their base?_ “Who are they fighting?”

The super gigantic carrier was separated into sectors. The northern most sectors were a cold climate and the southern most sectors were hot. In-between, it was temperate. The sectors were not all equally large and several of them were almost impassable for tanks.

“I can't tell. I can't see who they are firing at.” Akebi rose from her position. “It looks like they are retreating to the south. Ah.” There was a glimpse of another tank but not enough to identify it. “I saw a large gray tank but that could have been any number of types.”

“Don't mind it. At least we know that Maginot is almost certainly to our south. Please keep watch.” Miho turned off her intercom and mumbled by herself for a bit. _Maginot is not a big threat, usually, but they came under new management not too long ago. It cost them a lot of members, but we never got the information on how well they regrouped after that._ _Maginot would have been very troublesome at their full capacity. They had around eighty people, and if they fitted an average of four per tank...being outnumbered eight to twenty would be bad, but not impossible. If anyone else joined the battle on their side however… and I have to account for attrition. Fuel and munition is not limitless and neither are other supplies. Having more tanks means being able to send out more scouts and take greater risks for each individual tank. I don't know how many tanks Maho has… ah, I'm really going to see Maho right now._ Miho felt a bit relieved all of a sudden. Even if it was a trap, she would almost certainly just because Maho's prisoner and that thought kind of excited her. _She could do… things to me. It would not be a war crime to use…_ _ **that**_ _and do_ _ **this**_ _and then_ _ **that…**_

“We're going to enter the sector soon.” Mako announced in her low-key voice and it brought Miho back to reality.

“Yukari, Akebi, do you see anything?”

Far away, but not for much longer, was Maho at this very moment. Mobilizing three tanks and twenty people felt overkill and dangerous to the people who knew where she was going. Ooarai was a serious opponent they respected – this was true for almost everyone at Kuromorimine, even the third years. And still, taking three fully loaded tanks and their crews felt like Maho was going to war, not to a negotiation. Everyone was not just ready for anti-tank battles but also ready for a battle on foot.

“{Commander, based on the way the clouds look, it will-}” 

_I know. It's going to rain soon. And when it starts, it probably won't stop for a while. We're in the middle of the ocean here, so visibility will be zero._ Maho zoned out the rest of the report because she knew what it was about and she honestly had trouble keeping calm when knowing she was about to go see Miho.

“{Hurry up and finish! We leave in five!}” Maho shouted and she disliked having to shout. She really was not the type to do so, but her troops responded well to it. It played into their German language well. It was mostly stereotypes speaking within them, but whenever they spoke German, they did so a lot louder than Japanese.

Putting on a German army hat – Kuromorimine largely managed to avoid needing sponsors but they didn't turn down gifts such as clothing for the competition – Maho walked towards her tank, carrying a Heckler & Koch MG4, like most of her soldiers. It was quite heavy for firing paint bullets and being hit with a shot could hurt as much as being hit with a forcefully thrown sack of sand the size of a fist.

Erika had returned in the meantime. She forced her way into accompanying Maho by pushing another soldier out. Out of the twenty people signed up to attend the negotiation, sixteen were armed with MG4s and a backup Heckler & Koch USP – the Pistole 8. One particularly small member of the squad was armed with four Heckler & Koch P7; a weapon used only by the military police of Germany. The remaining three consisted of two snipers and one person, out of four in all of Kuromorimine's tankery crew, that was trained in personal anti-tank combat and had a special permit to wield a real weapon that fired munition as real as tankery allowed it – the Panzerfaust 3, a RPG that fired missiles and was for usage in tank battles only.

Maho didn't fully agree with bringing in modern weapons into a battle of world war 2 tanks, but the nature of the competition made it make a lot more sense than it would have in a traditional tankery match. But dislike or not, she would use everything at her disposal to win. Munition was limited, and it was impossible to outfit the entire personnel with weapons at the same time, but that was rarely, if ever, necessary anyway. Arms could be taken from shot soldiers and the standing order was to never let anything go to waste.

Taking her spot as the commander of a Panzerkampfwagen II Model F, along side two Hetzer – Jagdpanzer 38 – Maho waited for the remaining personnel to take their spots. She served as the fifth person of the usually four people operating a Panzer II. The Hetzer were operated by four people each as well. The remaining seven that were excess infantry personnel, rode on top of the tank, ready for combat at any time. Maho had little frame of comparison for this, but she believed Kuromorimine to be one, if not **the** most well disciplined army in this competition.

“[Panzer Vor!]” Maho's order came over the short range intercom instead of the radio. She had heard her mother complain that allowing these short range intercoms was worsening the authenticity of the competition being in the spirit of world war 2. Strangely enough, she didn't seem bothered by the weapons.

“{Commander, Ooarai is already there.}” The message came from Maho's radio operator. “{Should I tell our snipers to take positions?}

“{We are here to negotiate.}” Maho sounded pissed and the radio operator made sure to tell the other two tanks to not engage. There would be hell on earth if some baseless aggression blew these negotiations.

The three tanks from Kuromorimine, carrying two, two and three excess people that were visibly armed, arrived at the previously agreed spot and both Yukari and Akebi felt the little hairs on their neck stand up.

“Calm down.” Miho saw the other tanks arrive through the driver's window. “They are wary of our offer and I would be too if I was Maho.”

“But Lady Nishizumi-” Yukari didn't trust Kuromorimine at all.

“Stand down and do not engage even if they act a little hostile. You are only to fire if they fire first. This is an order from your commandeering general.” Miho rarely pulled rank, which gave it extra weight when she did it.

“Understood.” Yukari kept her weapons holstered. Akebi couldn't do the same as there was no way to holster a sniper rifle, so instead she kept standing – a clear sign that she was not taking aim at anyone.

Miho emerged from the tank and seconds after, so did Maho on the German side of things. Both commanders approached the center point that was between their parked tanks. “Maho. Good to see you.” Miho was so happy that she forgot about the rules for a second. Maho reminded her by glancing upwards, where a drone was floating. Those things were surprisingly silent and ever present, which bothered Miho quite a bit.

“{Where is your translator, Miho? Do not tell me you were so excited to see me that you forgot to bring her along.}” Maho was disappointed that she had to speak German in front of Miho, fully knowing she wouldn't understand.

Erwin had spent the entire journey there in silence inside the tank and nose-deep in a dictionary for military terms. She absolutely didn't want to mess up an official negotiation. When she heard Miho's whistle, two short and high pitched ones followed by a longer, low-key one, she left the tank and quickly made her way over to her commander. Miho watched Maho's troops but if they were nervous, they hid it perfectly.

“{I'm Erwin.}” She held out her arm towards Maho to shake hands.

“{Like Erwin Rommel?}” Maho was not a history buff, but she knew some of the big names of the country she sort of represented.

“Riko Matsumoto.” Miho offered with a smile that was a little fake.

“{The weather won't hold for much longer. We can skip the formalities and cut right to the core of why we're here.}” Maho didn't want to end up in the pouring rain.

Erwin translated for Miho and looked sour. _I feel stupid telling her this, knowing that Maho understands what I am translating. This is a really stupid rule. But I guess everyone would just have Japanese schools act as their intermediary if they didn't have it._

Miho could tell what was going on and so she whispered in Erwin's ear and then nodded.

Yukari and Akebi watched from the distance. “What do you think they're talking about?” Yukari wanted to be there, but having someone like her in the middle of a negotiation would just make everyone pointlessly nervous. She could take two, if not three, girls of Maho's size and fitness at the same time and have them all on the ground, in pain, within a minute or two. All that working out she did was finally paying off big time.

“They don't look as tense as I thought they would be.” Akebi could make out most of their faces despite them being about fifteen meters away.

“I kinda don't want to be allies with them. But if Lady Nishizumi says it's for the best I won't complain.”

“You're already complaining.”

“I mean to her!”

Erika watched the on-going negotiations somewhat annoyed. She had asked Maho three times to be present there with her in case something happened and all three times she had been shot down. She wanted to order the snipers to take position in case Ooarai was laying a trap, but Maho had given explicit orders against that as well. And refusing a direct order like that would have serious consequences – in the worst case, such as causing an unnecessary conflict with a potential ally, Maho could kick them out of the tankery team and have them immediately removed from the competition. Nobody wanted to risk that.

Maho looked at Miho after hearing some of the offers and demands that Ooarai had. “{Those aren't exactly advantageous conditions for Kuromorimine}”

Erwin whispered to Miho, who whispered back and Maho watched with invisible jealousy. She still had to present the tough commander of Kuromorimine, especially to this Erwin girl.

“{Ooarai has a number of specialists available and would make their services available for Kuromorimine.}”

_Having the various specialists of Ooarai on call would be very good. They do have some very good mechanics and infantry people from what our intelligence said. Of course, there is Miho and she's the best commander around, but that goes without saying. I also heard that they have a surprising number of people speaking a secondary language. I'm surprised this Erwin girl even speaks German this well. It was complete hell to get this good in such a short time. I had nightmares about my teacher for weeks. I know I am forgetting something._ “{I cannot possibly allow Ooarai free access to our supplies.}” Maho watched more whispers.

“{If not free access, then what kind? Sharing supplies is the one of our main conditions.}”

_If they are pushing this hard to have access to our supplies, they must be really short. We're not doing stellar either, but we're far from running out. I could probably squeeze them for quite a bit of extra cooperation by leveraging this, but… it's Miho. I know that if I handle these negotiations with good faith, Ooarai will be a much more valuable asset rather than bullying them into making concessions they are not prepared for._ “{There is no special treatment for anyone in Kuromorimine. A commander receives the exact same amount and type of supplies as everyone else. Ooaria has to agree to that treatment as well.” _Having them be subject to the same rationing as everyone else under my command should be reasonable. We'll have to adjust the rations a little bit but Ooarai are scarcely forty people, if that._

“{That's acceptable.}” Erwin translated for Miho again. _It's not like we handle rations any differently anyway._

Maho stepped back and looked at her troops. “{How well armed is Ooarai? We have roughly seventy percent Kampfbereitschaft, based on weapon quantity alone.}”

Erwin looked at Maho for a long moment. _Shit. Is Kampfbereitschaft a special portmanteau of words? Or does it literally just mean combat readiness like it sounds like? I hope it's the latter_. Whispering to Miho, Erwin whispered back and forth a few times until she finally had something to tell Maho. _Okay, lets see…_ “{Roughly ninety percent of our soldiers could be armed and sent into combat.}” Erwin phrased it differently on purpose, just in case she made a mistake interpreting Maho's question.

_Ninety percent? I mean, yes, they are only around forty people, but how did they train people? And where did they get the necessary weapons?_ “{How many Snipers? Any combat specialists?}” More whispers and Maho was getting a little tired of it.

“{That is confidential. Only an ally will be privy to that kind of detail.}”

“{How about a ten minute break? Is that acceptable?}” Maho wanted some time to think about the offer, so she asked for a break. _I really, really want to just take them up on this, but appearing too eager to form an alliance with Ooarai will hurt Kuromorimine's image. I have to appear like I am having mercy on them or I am merely using them._

Parting ways after accepting a ten minute break, Miho was not unhappy with the terms but not happy either. “It's unfortunate that I couldn't get Maho to agree to a shared command. I'm not surprised that she wouldn't give up complete control of Kuromorimine but I had to try.”

“Lady Nishizumi!” Yukari waved from the top of the tank.

“You really helped me out, Erwin.” Miho looked at the blonde with a big smile. “If they accept the alliance, we will have to move our camp. I'll have to re-assign tent placement and so forth. You won't mind sharing a tent with Yukari, would you?”

Erwin, the always confident Erwin, opened her mouth and only a strange creaking sound came out before she blushed and pulled her hat deep into her face.

On the other side, Erika was already asking Maho how the negotiations had gone. “{Better than expected. There is little- no, no reason to decline the alliance. They basically just want food and supplies.}” _It's not entirely true that everything they want is just some rations and supplies. They also want us to protect each other by having a joint encampment, like Saunders and Gloriana. And some smaller things that aren't worth mentioning to Erika right now_.

Maho spent the ten minutes break going over every detail of what they had discussed. It was a good offer. But she couldn't quite understand why Miho was making it. _Are they really so low on supplies that they are in danger of having to withdraw from the war? They should be able to take on some of the smaller schools just fine. Unless… they are struggling in the same way. It's true that the Western Allies have hoarded a lot of supplies as of late. They're sitting in the middle of the temperate zone and are starving everyone around them. Pravda and Jatkosota occupy most of the northern region and… who was it that occupied the southern parts? They're the least suitable for tanks because of almost tropical growth and driving a tank through a jungle is just a terrible scenario._ _I believe Chi-Ha-Tan was trying to consolidate the southern region and bring it under their control. They do have the numbers, if only that. It's no coincidence that the temperate zone is the one where most of the big schools have settled down. This reminds me that we have been completely unable to track down the whereabouts of Anzio's base_.

Sidetracked by thoughts of the battlefield, Maho focused again on the alliance. _Considering our forces, even with Ooarai we account at best for 2/3 of what the Western Allies can field. We would need Chi-Ha-Tan or… maybe there are some alternatives I haven't considered yet. With Ooarai as public leverage, I can present Kuromorimine as a force of equality – The Axis to the Allies. To put a stop to their hoarding and self-preservation. Unless something is done, they will win by mere attrition and outlasting the rest of us while we fight each other. But even with Miho by my side… Kuromorimine has many enemies. Of course we need to deal with Pravda quickly before they start to imitate us and pull someone into an alliance. But that Anzio is still a completely unknown factor to us worries me. We have seen_ _ **one**_ _tankette from them. Where are they? What are they doing?_ _There is also the matter of Jatkosota. They have relatively few forces but they keep hiding out in the northern most part of the battlefield and only come down to the temperate zone every so often. We have sketchy ideas of their arsenal at best. And what in god's name do they do to their tanks? It's hard to tell what is what with them because everything is modified so much_.

Someone banged on the tank from above. “{Ten minutes have passed.}”

Miho on the other hand had racked her brain on how to follow up these negotiations. An alliance always evolved and change and she had intentionally held back some critical information she could leverage with Maho later. She hoped she didn't have to pressure her own sister too much, but in this scenario, Ooarai came first – even if her feelings told her otherwise.

Maho gave Miho a little smile when her little sister arrived together with Erwin. “{Kuromorimine officially accepts Ooarai's conditions and will treat them as an equal partner from now until the end of the alliance.}”

Erwin quickly translated and Miho stepped forward. “I'm looking forward to working with you.”

Maho opened her mouth and hoped that Miho could read just a little bit from her lips. Moving her mouth like she was saying _So do I_ , in Japanese, Maho was glad when Miho smiled at her and held out her hand.

Shaking hands was cut short by a faint, distant roar that was carried across the winds on the open plain they were on. “{Thunder.}” Maho turned around and whistled twice, long. Within the minute, Erika had come running. “{Explain to the blonde girl where our base is. The alliance is official now.}”

Erika didn't seem too bothered but she didn't even greet Miho and instead went straight into explaining to Erwin how to find the base. Kuromorimine was situated in an exceptionally good location. 

To the west and east of their base were steep hills that no tank could climb without ruining the engine and taking forever. To the south was a thick forest and, beyond the forest, a steep cliff that was treacherous in every way imaginable. Only the north offered an actual passage to the rest of the battlefield, albeit it was theoretically possible to drive an unmanned tank off the cliff by taking a massive detour around the camp and slowly climbing up various slopes to the cliff. But there was no way for the tank to fly all the way to the base. Maho had them build actual fortifications because she knew that there could not be a better location on the entire carrier.

Erwin took notes because she couldn't memorize all those coordinates and landmarks. The carrier was, even by schoolship standards, absolutely enormous and the entire surface area constituted a battlefield.

Thunder reached them a second time and Maho was instructing the two Hetzers, as well as the armed infantry, that they were to go with Ooarai and act as observers as well as physical aid – Ooarai was going to move their base and set up in the forest behind Kuromorimine.

Yukari viewed the developments with light suspicion but when she saw how happy Miho was with how things had turned out, she switched tracks. Since Maho's tank was going back and that one had transported armed personal as well, Yukari waved over two of the Kuromori girls. “You can ride with us.”

The two girls, both had long black hair and MG4s, looked at each other. A situation like this was not covered in the rules. Official business between teams, if one team was not Japanese, had to be in that language. But basic conversation between participants was not covered in that. “{It's not fair that they can just speak Japanese but we have to use German.}”

Yukari suddenly felt a little out of her depth. “A-Akebi, what are they saying?”

“Erwin is the translator, not me.”

One of the girls heard Yukari and quickly jumped up the tank. She was one of the twenty-four people that had endured an eighty percent ratio of infantry drills while the rest of Kuromorimine trained with the opposite ratio.

Grabbing Yukari by her collar, the girl faked a confrontation to get close enough that the drone above them couldn't pick up on what she was saying. “We can't speak Japanese with you. We do understand you, though. And thanks for letting us ride. It'd be really crowded on the two Hetzers. Now push me real hard.”

Yukari shoved the girl. “What's the big idea?!”

“{And?}” The other girl shouted.

“{Strong like a bear. Get your butt up here, they're letting us hitch along.}”

_I guess they're not actually bad people,_ Yukari thought as she got a wink from the girl she just shoved and sat further to the side, where Akebi was moving as well. A third girl joined them and she greeted Yukari and Akebi with a smile and waving her right hand.

“Maho!” Miho called out, standing in front of her tank and her older sister turned around, standing on top of her Panzer II. “I'll see you soon!”

Maho's heart fluttered and she saluted Miho. “{Be careful!}” Telling Miho to be careful, like a caring older sister, Maho felt all giddy on the inside. Winning the competition was important of course, but if she could do that with Miho by her side, it was going to be so much better.

Miho's tank, the Panzer IV Model H, quickly traveled back the same way it came, with two Hetzer's in peaceful pursuit. Erwin had her hands full operating the radio and learning the important Kuromori frequencies as well as some code words and then translating all of that to Miho. It dawned on her now that she was going to have to do this non-stop from now on and she felt tired out just thinking of it.

Thankfully, Miho had an excellent memory and she picked up on words that Erwin repeated a lot to her. Thankfully, German pronunciation was not all that different from Japanese, unlike English. “I didn't expect this to actually work out.” Erwin was glad to be given a break.

“I expected Maho to leverage our bad situation against us much more than she did. It almost feels like she did the bare minimum to appear having leveraged us.”

“She's your sister. She probably didn't want you to hate her.”

“Maho is still Maho. She wouldn't mess around in tankery because of personal feelings.”

“You'll have to ask her then.” Erwin picked the headphones back up and got back on the radio when it crackled.

“It's gonna rain.” Akebi looked at the distant sky. Right above them the sky was completely blue with scarcely a cloud here and there. “The horizon is all black.”

One of the two girls from Kuromori reacted as if she had been called by name. There was a lot of noise from the tank so she tapped Akebo in the shoulder. “{Did you say something?}”

Akebi looked like she was put on the spot. “[N-No?]” _I'm stupid, that's English._

Another girl grinned and shook her head, then pointed at her own lips “[Nein.]”

“[Nein?]” Akebi repeated.

The girl nodded enthusiastically and started laughing before she showed her a thumbs up, causing the volleyball player to blush.

“Hey! No seducing our members!” Yukari interrupted conversation and earned a big laugh from all the Kuromori girls. “What?”

“{Will you take it down a notch up there? I can hear you over the damn radio!}” Erwin shouted from inside the tank, so loud that Miho covered her ears and Mako wanted to just drive the tank into a ditch to do the same.

“{Someone's real mad.}” One of the Kuromori soldiers joked and the other two punched her shoulders. They were quiet after that and all thought the same thing. _Commander Maho is gonna take off our head if Ooarai complains about us first thing after we set up an alliance._

Miho made sure that Erwin radioed ahead to the base so things were already being packed – stuffed into crates, barrels and everything that could be used as a container. The German soldiers that had been sent along as helpers were quite amazed and distraught by the lack of proper equipment at Ooarai and the ingenuity with which they compensated for it. The language barrier was only one way, so at least it was easy to tell the Germans what to do.

The blue sky had darkened significantly by the time the Ooarai base had been packed and all the tanks had been loaded. Thanks to the two Hetzer that had arrived together with Miho they were able to transport everything at once. Their pace was slow and it would take them hours to get to the Kuromori base.

Erwin rode with the rest of the Hippo crew and happy that there was no more translating to do for the moment. “I think my head is about to turn into Baumkuchen or something.”

“Into **what**?” Saemonza, the gunner of the team, was a bit bored since it was a purely logistical trip.

“The cake. It's a German specialty.” Erwin explained and moved her neck in a circle, trying to relief some stress.

“This alliance came a little out of nowhere.” Caesar had been quite surprised when the news hit and spread around the base like a wildfire.

“I'm glad the commander came up with the idea.” Oryou, the driver of the team, breathed a sigh of relief. “I was so sick of ration bars.”

With the transport being purely logistic, most of the soldiers, at least the ones that were not on guard, took the chance to take a nap. Ten heavily loaded tanks, almost all of them dragging crates or drums on makeshift sleds behind them across the plains, slowly advanced towards the fortified German base.

Miho spent much of the travel time nose deep in Erwin's German dictionary so she wouldn't have to call her all the time. It was impossible to learn enough to have a real conversation in just a few hours, but knowing what some words meant was a big help. As overall commander of Ooarai, she was also expected to address Maho in German every time they discussed anything about the competition, which would be the majority of the time.

“Miporin, there's a message for you from Erwin.” Saori notified her commander and almost caused Hana to fall over – the black haired girl was resting against her to catch some much needed sleep. Yukari was up top, together with the Kuromori girls from before and getting taught a few words of German. She was getting along with them surprisingly well. “The commander of the Hetzer at the front is telling us that they got a message from their HQ. BC Freedom High School and Viking Fisheries are having a mud slinging match right on our route so we need to take a detour around them.”

“Right.” Mako didn't look forward to prolonging the trip even more. She wanted to take a nap, like Hana.

“Contact everyone else and tell them to stick to the line and follow the Hetzers.” Miho didn't even need to look up from the dictionary to give such a simple order.

Because of the detour, the black clouds caught up with tank caravan. They were still over thirty minutes out from the Kuromori base when Miho gave an emergency order and every tank sprung to life. With the exception of the drivers, all of the girls were suddenly out and about, pulling rain planes from specifically marked places and covering their precious cargo – their entire belongings.

And sure enough, within minutes of the last plane being attached, the floodgates of heavens opened in all of their majestic power and nearly drowned the girls still out of the tanks. Visibility dropped to fifty percent within the minute, then even less. It was difficult for the drivers to even see the tank right in front of them.

The Kuromori soldiers were completely unprepared for the deluge that was slamming them and the majority of them was soaked to the bone as they squeezed into the now very full tanks. Nobody voiced a complaint and the German troops really appreciated that since they really didn't have any right to just occupy the already scarce space inside the vehicles.

Arrival at the Kuromori base was an ordeal by itself. With the visibility as low as it was – it was difficult to see more than two meters ahead at this point – and Ooarai not really speaking any German other than Erwin, it was a hassle to even identify themselves without being fired upon. It took considerable effort from Kuromori and Ooarai to have the tanks of the latter pass through the base without rolling over any tents or crates. There was no way that a base could be established in torrential rain so the absolute essentials were pried from beneath the rain covers and for the time being Ooarai was stuffed into the command tent, the radio tent and the supply tent, split into group all over.

The rain did have the advantage that the drones had retreated for the time being. Maho and Miho both knew that they would be back as soon as it was clear that this rain was not going to stop anytime soon. Storms out on the ocean often lasted a lot longer than storms on land. Away from the rest of her soldiers, Miho received a cup of actual coffee in Maho's tent. It was a treat, as far as she was concerned. Maho was still very much dry while Miho was soaked. “You should change into something else. If Ooarai loses their commander to a cold it would be a PR disaster.”

“Are you okay not speaking German?” Miho sipped the coffee and hated the taste. It was way too strong, no sugar and black to boot.

“No drones.” Maho smiled wide as she walked past Miho to a large coffer that held two changes of clothes. Kuromori was well equipped and not exactly lacking for sponsors after having won the nationals so many times. “Are you okay wearing a Kuromorimine uniform?”

“It's a little nostalgic.” Miho put the coffee on the small table that Maho had in her a tent. Starting to peel off layers of uniform in front of her sister, Miho felt a fire burn inside her. _Maho is looking at me strip. It's making my heart race like crazy. I wish she'd just grab me, push me down and… No, what am I thinking? She's still my sister. I need to keep these thoughts under control while I'm around her._

Maho's pulse was so high that she feared she was going to faint at any second now, or worse, get a nosebleed that she couldn't explain. Hearing her heartbeat hammer in her ears, Maho turned away and made sure, five times, that the tent was closed properly while Miho changed. But she still couldn't keep her eyes away. “Have you grown a little?”

Miho was just swapping out shirts – she had kept her mostly dry underwear on – when she paused, half dressed. “I don't think so? At least it can't be much. Maybe a centimeter, probably less.”

“That's not what I meant.” Maho joked with a grandiose smile and hoped that she was passing it off as a sisterly teasing well enough.

“You sound like a pervert, Maho.” Miho giggled behind her hand and grabbed the Kuromori skirt that her sister had provided. “How do I look?”

“Like me, just a little younger and much more beautiful.”

“Beautiful? You think?” Miho picked the coffee back up. “Thanks for the clothes, Maho.”

“I'm glad you called for this alliance.”

“Are we… still talking as the commanders of two armies?”

“Do you want to?”

“No. And I guess I can let my my older sister in on a secret. We have been eating ration bars for three days. It was really hurting morale. We also only have eight tanks and in a competition like this I can't beat someone with three or even five times as many tanks. They can tow their vehicles and repair them, we don't have the parts. I had no choice but to ask someone for an alliance.”

“So you asked your older sister.”

“I thought that if I have to work with someone, I'd want to work with someone I love and respect.”

Maho averted her face and blushed. “You respect me? Even now?”

“You're my sister. I'll always respect you. Unless you lose against someone like Waffle Academy. I'd lecture you.”

“Lecture me?”

“I would have you kneel on the ground and put books on your legs.”

“Are you from the early Showa period?” Maho couldn't help but grin at the thought of Miho lecturing and punishing her.

“That's mean.”

“It's such an old fashioned punishment.”

“Our Nishizumi style is much older than the Showa period!”

“It is. I see you didn't forget what mother taught us.”

“How is… she?”

“She's not really mad at you anymore. She still doesn't really talk about you but your photos are back in her study.” Maho closed one eye. “I peeked when I went back home.”

Miho looked incredibly relieved. “I'm glad.”

“When you went to Ooarai and mother was on her crusade against you and I was caught in the middle… I'm sorry I couldn't do anything.” Maho was a very caring person that was burdened by having to act like she didn't care at all.

“Mom is kind of… intense with everything she does. Especially tankery. It's almost like I was committing sacrilege in her eyes. But I'm glad she doesn't seem to think that anymore.”

Before their conversation could continue, someone walked right into Maho's tent. “Who… “Maho burst into laughter before she could even finish asking who dared to just walk into her tent unannounced and interrupt Miho time.

Alice had walked into the tent and her hair was covering her entire face like a curtain. Maho could have sworn that it was absolutely impossible that she could see anything like this. “Alice, why are you here?”

Sweeping the slick, wet hair curtains from her face, Alice looked past Maho and right at Miho. Now that she was suddenly face to face with her, Alice didn't know what to say for a while. “Good to see you, Miho.”

“You sound so formal, Alice.” Miho got up and stood in front of Alice. “I would hug you but I **just** got dry and-.”

Alice pulled back her hair and with expert motions pulled it into a wet mass that resembled a ponytail. “We can fight together this time.” Alice held out her hand. She was still quite a bit shorter than Miho and her wet clothes and hair made her look even smaller.

Taking Alice's hand, Miho looked really happy. “Are you happy at Kuromori?”

“Maho bullies me.”

Miho turned around and her older sister put up her hands in defense. “I do **not**.” Maho trembled when Miho kept looking at her in disdain. “Miho, you have to believe me.”

Then Miho and Alice both started giggling and Maho realized she had been set up. “You two are terrible.”

“I see you changed quite a bit, Alice.” Miho sat back down. “Maho, can you give her a towel?”

“I'm fine. A Shimada won't be deterred by a little ra-acho!” Alice made an entirely unconvincing argument. Alice rubbed her nose. “A Shimada is not deterred by a little rain.”

“Maho, who is this tough girl and what have you done to the real Alice?”

Maho sat down on her field bed and faced Miho. “It's strange, isn't it? She was pretty shy when she first transferred here. I told her that she wasn't going to get any special treatment – and she didn't – and look at her now. She's respected by all the first years and even some of the second years.”

“Ohh.” Miho sounded amazed. “You did so well, Alice.”

“I am not that little girl that lost to you anymore, Miho.” Eying Miho's coffee, Alice was surprised when the cup passed to her hands. “I can have some?”

“You look like you need it a lot more than me.”

Maho could hardly contain herself watching that, knowing exactly what was about to follow. Alice partook from the coffee and her face did a miniature implosion – as if she had eaten a sour plum whole. “Alice can't drink black coffee like the rest of us.”

“I can.” Alice squeezed her eyes shut and tried to drink the coffee but she just couldn't take how bitter it was. “Bitter… ew...”

“Now this is more like the Alice that I imagined I'd find here.” Miho was glad to be surrounded by these two. “I have to admit I am a little disappointed we don't get to fight each other. But fighting together makes me happy too.”

“We cannot win together. I thought about this earlier, during the negotiations, but this competition will only allow a single school to win. Even in the case of mutually assured destruction, the school that caused more knockouts will be considered the winner.”

“So if Miho and I take out each other again, I still win!” Alice sounded enthusiastic about that.

“I won't be easy to defeat.” Miho jokingly taunted Alice. “And we'll both have to survive all the way to the end to determine who is better.”

“I'm glad the two of you can talk like that without flinging icy stares at each other like our mothers do.”

Alice had been surprised how often Maho brought up her mother. But after seeing that Maho was actually a very kind person and connecting the dots on why she behaved like a dictator out there, it was no longer surprising.

“I wonder if their differences in tankery is why they dislike each other.” Miho wondered out loud and found it strange that Alice was staying out of this conversation. When she looked at her, it felt like she stared down a frightened animal that was doing its best to stay invisible. “What is your mother like at home, Alice? Does she ever mention our mom?”

Alice looked away and at this point it was blindingly obvious that she was hiding something.

“You were saying something strange about her earlier, too.” Maho remembered that now. “That she has a special view of our mother?”

“It's better you don't know.”

“That kinda makes me want to know even more...” Miho felt a bit embarrassed that she wanted to pry. Her relationship with her mother had been kind of bad for a very long time now, every since she first discovered tankery, so they never talked much and certainly not about the Shimada. So she wanted to know. About how someone like Alice's mom saw her mother – someone who had most likely met her on the battlefield.

“They used to be close.” Alice still looked away and she looked even wetter than before now.

Maho and Miho both needed a second to register and process that. “What?!” The word came out of their mouths at almost the exact same time.

“I saw some photos of them together.” _A_ _ **lot**_ _of photos. Mom had an entire yearbook filled with just photos of them together. And she looked so happy in all of them._ Alice was a clever girl, so she connected the dots. “When they went to high school together, they were friends.”

“I can't imagine that.” Maho tried to picture her mother as someone that was friends with Shimada Chiyo. _It's hard to imagine mother as a teenager to begin with…_

“Me too.” Miho could hardly remember a time when her mother had not been like she was now.

“A-Anyway.” Alice didn't feel like blabbering out any more of her mother's secrets. “Maho, we have forty two people that have nowhere to sleep. Koume asked around and at most they can get about twenty of them to sleep in their tanks.”

“Putting up spare tents in this rain will be a disaster.” Maho saw an opportunity here. “We can't ask them to sleep in their tanks, however. Not only would that still leave a number of them with no place to sleep, but it's possible that this rain is going until tomorrow. They would be confined to the tanks unless they stepped out into the rain.”

“Should I go and find Koume?” Alice really wanted to take a larger part of command, because she was used to it, but Maho was very stubborn about having other people do part of her job.

“They can't get to their sleeping bags… it will be crowded but there's no other choice...” Maho mumbled in a low voice for a moment. “We're going to make use of our field gear.”

“I'm not sure what you're talking about...” Alice couldn't follow.

“The MIA bags.”

“We have only about fifteen of those.” Alice didn't remember the exact number.

“What are you two talking about?” Miho had been watching the conversation with interest.

“MIA bags are just really large sleeping bags designed for usage in hazardous environments. Because they're made with long time use in mind, such as the arctic, they allow for some minimal movement inside so soldiers don't suffer from their limbs being numb after extended use.”

_Kuromorimine has really amazing equipment. Yukari probably knew about these things but we could never afford something like that_. “So you're going to… let us borrow those sleeping bags?”

“We do have regular sleeping bags but they are in the storage crates… which are currently standing out in the rain. So we won't be able to get to them.”

“Those cover bags are not in storage?”

“Like weapons and all other combat material we need to have those at the ready. I don't know how Ooarai handled training, but a number of our students have specialized in infantry warfare over the last few months. The cover bags are distributed to them.” Maho explained things to Miho with a smile. “Honestly, I thought we wouldn't end up using them because this is a **tankery** competition. But it doesn't hurt to be prepared.”

“You're such a worrywart, Maho.”

“You think so?” Maho looked away and wondered if Miho was right.

_Are they… pretending to be flirting?_ Alice was an only child, so she didn't know what it was like to have a sister but after attending Kuromorimine for a few months she could definitely tell when one girl had the hots for another girl.

“I'll get word to Koume. She'll work something out.” Leaving the tent, Alice ran as hard as she could through the downpour, regretting that she had not put on a rain mantle, even if it was comically large for her.

“She's like a changed person.”

“Only out here.” Maho's soft smile caused Miho to stare at her, which in turn caused Maho to blush. “Does it look weird when I smile?”

“You should smile more often, sis.” Miho really loved the kind Maho, the real Maho.

“I-I'll try.”

“What did you mean, _only out here_?”

“Alice is still pretty quiet and shy in class or around school in general. One day some of our third years, they weren't on our tankery team, found Alice lost on the school grounds and thought she was an elementary school student. And because they were kinda pushy and tall, Alice couldn't get a word out to correct their mistake so they dragged her all around the school looking for her parents.”

“Poor...” A few giggles escaped Miho. “Poor… Poor Alice.” Miho's face looked like that of a hamster – she was trying very hard not to laugh, picturing all of that happening.

“Laughing at… Alice is really… mean...” Maho turned away because she didn't want Miho to see that she was about to burst into laughter herself.

Sitting down next to her sister in a hurry, Miho took the chance to hug Maho from the side. “You really **do** bully Alice! You villainous sister you.”

_Ah… Miho is so close.. I can feel… a lot of her._ Maho's thoughts raced and she didn't say anything when Miho didn't let go. Just facing the back of the tent and letting her little sister hold on to her, Maho was breathing faster and faster. _What is wrong with me? To get this excited over my little sister… it's true that I haven't really seen her in a while, but… but… ah… she smells so good, even after getting doused in the rain._

“I'm **really** happy we can fight together.” Resting her head against Maho's shoulder, Miho really indulged herself. _I know it's bad… to take advantage of Maho like this. She'd probably still love me even if she knew how I feel but things would be so awkward… and mom would definitely disown me this time_.

“Miho… I'm the one that's happy we're fighting together now. It's not just about you being a good commander… but having my little sister so close by is really going to put me at ease.”

“Geez, you make it sound like you have to worry about me all the time!” Miho complained and pushed her entire body against Maho, the two of them nearly falling off the bed. “I'm only a year younger than you.”

“Next year I'll be at the university branch of Kuromorimine. We won't be able to face each other at the nationals that year.”

“I'll win for us both. And then we'll be able to see who is really the best when I attend university.”

“Are you gonna be okay with your studies, though?”

“You're treating me like a little girl. You bully.” Miho bounced against Maho again and just rested against her sister's back then. “I hope this competition lasts for some time.”

“You were running out of food just a few hours ago.”

“That's because the conditions were unfair! Schools had to find sponsors or pay for things out of their own pocket and Ooarai… we might have won the nationals, but...”

“Schools like Saunders and us had a clear advantage from the start. But if I had to praise any of the poorer schools for their performance then it would be Anzio. We had a general idea of what you were doing with Ooarai and where your camp was, but we have absolutely no idea where Anzio is, what they are doing or how many tanks they have. They're a total mystery entity.”

“Is it okay to tell me confidential information like that?”

“Is my little sister going to tattle on me?”

“You're a bully, Maho. Stupid.”

“Have you been watching anime lately, Miho?”

“What is **that** supposed to mean?!” Miho puffed up her cheeks.

“It sounded like a line from an anime.”

“I'll call you Commander from now on then.”

“Please… don't.” Maho felt bad all of a sudden. “I'm sorry.”

“See, I can be a bully too.”

“You're a bit of a different person when you're alone with me.”

“I think I understand the kind of burden mom's expectations place on you. Everyone at Ooarai hopes that I'm going to lead them to victory against impossible odds but I'm not the world's greatest commander.”

“You are the world's cutest little sister, though.”

“I'm gonna blush.”

“I mean it!”

“That makes you the world's best older sister.” _I know you're following mom's doctrine because you want me to be able to be free. I'm not that dense, Maho. And I love you for that._

“R-Really?”

“Uhm… I'm sorry to interrupt...” Koume, with a bright red face, made her presence known. “You ignored my asking to come in two times and it is raining and… I didn't see anything!”

_No, no, no, what kind of misunderstanding are you creating here?!_ Maho jumped up and knocked Miho off the field bed. Catching her with her spartan reflexes, holding her like a knight would catch a falling princess, Maho only worsened the situation with her smug expression, making Koume cover her eyes with her hands. “We were just-” Having Miho sit back on the field bed, Maho tried to straighten out the situation.

“W-We are s-short on cover bags to h-have everyone from Ooarai get one. F-For now I had them group up in p-pairs to share one each. I s-swear I didn't see anything! T-That's all!” Koume was so embarrassed to have witnessed the two sisters doing what they were doing that she ran out of the tent and into the torrential rain without a second thought the second her report was finished.

“Don't worry Miho, I'll explain things to her!” Turning to the field bed, Maho found Miho with her own face bright red and making starry eyes at her. “Miho?!” Putting her own forehead on Miho's, Maho tested her for a fever. “You had me scared for a moment… I thought you had a… fev… er… Miho?”

Looking at Miho's face this up close made Maho's heart beat in overdrive. “Miho… you're kinda… close...” Maho had spent a lot of time hiding her feelings so she was still in control of her actions. 

Miho's face was as red as she was embarrassed and excited. Pulling away, just enough to get breathing space between their faces, Miho looked down. “Uhm… I heard that there's a lot of girls at your school that… I mean… you seem to have a fan club. Do any of those girls...”

_How did she hear about that?_ “I keep telling them that I don't want them to fawn over me, but...”

“I can understand them, though.” _She's blushing and she isn't backing away from me at all. If there is even the tiniest chance that Maho is comfortable with other girls coming on to her… maybe I could too…_

“Understand them?”

“You're cool and beautiful and you're the commander of the tankery team. That's enough to make most girls swoon.”

Maho was not tone-deaf either when it came to reading a girl's feelings. “I didn't know you preferred girls, Miho. That's a bit of a shock.”

“You… think it's weird?”

“No. Erika is like that, too. I think… a lot of the girls at Kuromorimine are like that. At least in the tankery team.”

“I bet that's because you're the commander. All the girls that fancy you joined up to be closer to you.”

“Is that how things are at Ooarai?” _So Miho is into girls… I had no idea. And she's still so close. I'm not dreaming, am I?_ Pinching her own leg, where Miho couldn't see, Maho felt a sharp pain reach all the way to her neck. _I am definitely not asleep. Thank you, whichever god is making this happen for me. If she likes girls I just… I just need to… convince her it's not strange… to like your sister. Maybe._

“Siscon.”

Both Nishizumi's flung around like they had been launched by a catapult and looked at a mightily pissed off Erika. “E-Erika, this is not-”

“How is this not what it looks like? The only way this could be any more what it looks like would be if I caught you in bed.” Erika was standing there with a rain cover over her uniform and head, dripping on the floor constantly. “I always thought you were a bit too fixated on Miho but this is really something else.”

“Erika, watch your mouth.” Maho wouldn't let Erika talk to her, or Miho, like that. “First of all, you're presuming a lot here from just watching us be in each other's company for the first time in months.”

“Miho. Look me in the eye and tell me that this is **not** what it looks like. Mind you, I really don't care if you two are into each other – I have seen much weirder things.” _I am never going to be able to look at magical girl cosplay quite the same way again… ugh, just remembering it is making me want to…_

Miho looked straight at Erika. “It's… it's not...” She blinked, shook her head and tried again. “It's not… what it looks…” Miho looked away again. “I'm sorry Maho, but it's like Erika says. It's… gross, isn't it?”

“When I said _siscon_ I meant both of you. In fact, I think my commander is way more intense about this than you are, Miho. Isn't that right Maho?”

“How dare you-”

“So you don't see Miho that way? So you think she's gross?”

“What? No! What are you even talking about? I won't let you insult-”

“There we go. Double siscon. I knew there was something going on here. It was worth it to force it out of Koume. I can't even imagine how awkward it would have been to watch the two of you have obviously the hots for each other and still deny it constantly.” Erika took a large step forward and faced Maho. “At least I know that Miho is a good commander or I would be asking if this whole alliance was only because you wanted to spent time with her.”

“I would never-” Maho could scarcely get a word in; Erika was on a rampage and Maho had never seen her quite like this.

“And Miho! You better not let this get in the way of doing your job as a commander! S-Saving Koume and me back then was one thing, but this is something else! The war takes priority!”

“Eh? No… what just happened here…” Miho was so confused. _No way? No I mean… no way! Maho feels like that about me? It wasn't just me? And what is Erika doing here? What did she even come here for? And she's too close! Too close!_ Miho's mind was going places faster than the bullets from a Porsche Tiger's machine gun. Erika was right in front of her face.

“Listen! I'm not gonna tell anyone – **but**! You two work out how to keep yourselves from doing whatever you were doing anywhere but in here!”

“Erika, who do you think you are-” Maho nearly took a step back when Erika bolted around and was suddenly right in her face.

“I don't think you appreciate what I am doing here, commander. You two would have danced around the issue for the entire war and it would have **definitively** messed with you. Now you can be as lovey-dovey as you want and nobody but me and Koume are the wiser. And just to be completely real – there's nothing strange about a girl liking another girl. This is not **actually** world war two. We have gay people marrying in Kyoto. And there's a whole lot of girls in out ranks that would definitely bully Miho if they knew you were this close because they'd be jealous as heck. You're my commander so I need you working at capacity!”

Whirling around, Erika reached beneath the translucent rain coat and pulled out a stack of papers. “There. Reports. That Ooarai girl… what's her name… black bob haircut, whatever – she wanted me to get them to you.” Erika slammed the papers on top of the folding table and paused. “I'm leaving.” Storming out of the tent, she left two extremely confused and perplexed Nishizumi's behind.

“What… was that? What just happened?” Maho's capacity for the unexpected was exceeded by a multitude right then.

“I… don't know...” Miho was too thrown off her guard for the fact that she and her sister shared their feelings for each other.

Outside the pouring rain, just a few meters away from the tent itself, stood Erika. _I knew it. I knew it forever. Well, not like this, I didn't know. But I knew it was never gonna work out for me. I always tried so hard and I never got anywhere._ No longer standing but marching forward, just forward, wherever it would take her, Erika was on collision course with one of her subordinates. Pushing her out of the way so hard that the girl not only fell but landed almost on her face, Erika kept storming away, her face every bit as wet as her boots. But it wasn't the rain that did that.

=== Eisenkreuz Imouto ===

The rain didn't let up. Ooarai would have been forced to spread across numerous tents if not for a number of forthcoming Kuromori students that offered to swap places – Two Kuromori students vacated two field beds and slept in one of the cover bags that were for Ooarai instead. This allowed up to four people from Ooarai to stay in the same tent. It was crowded, to say the least – like four people staying in one room at someone's house.

Six of the Ooarai girls had drawn the short straws when it came to determining the guards for the night. Among them were Mako Reizei and Midoriko Sono – or Sodoko as Mako kept insisting. The other four included the entire volleyball team – a freak happenstance that caused the Kuromori students to call them the cursed team of Ooarai, much to the dismay of those four.

“I hate this.” Mako was fighting her sleepiness with increasing futility and Sodoko slapped her for the third time now. “I hate you, too.” Her voice was almost devoid of emotion – she was simply too tired to muster any.

“It's not my fault you're a terrible guard!” Sitting in front of the Sumitomo M2, a heavy machine gun, Sodoko really despised her own luck. “I can't believe those Kuromori girls are sitting out here without a complain in this weather. Nobody is gonna come! I know it makes sense to put up some guards but why are we going to be up here for four hours before we get relieved? Four hour in the rain! Even with the rain coats, my feet are ice cold and I can- hey, Mako, are you listening?” Shoving the girl next to her, Sodoko was even more annoyed when she just made a groaning noise.

“Yes, yes… it's not your fault...”

“Is that all you heard?!”

“I don't know what you want from me. It's dark. It's cold. It's wet. I'm sleepy. Super sleepy.” Mako slid over the metal – the two of them sat on top of a tank that formed a defensive barrier with other tanks – and raised up her rain coat, as well as Sodoko's, to learn against her and get some warmth off of her. “… you're not really all that warm. You've been shouting so much that I thought you'd be warmer.”

“I am not a heater for you to use!”

“Eh… don't be like that. It's not like anyone's watching.”

“It doesn't matter whether anyone is watching!” Sodoko was running out of energy. _If this keeps up and I have to keep getting upset because of her antics for the next three hours I am going to fall asleep myself. I guess it won't hurt to let her get close._

It didn't take more than a minute before Mako was asleep again, resting against Sodoko. The two of them managed to remain relatively dry, even with their rain coats covering only their left and right sides respectively, thanks to the rain cover that Kuromorimine had fabricated in a hurry. Leftover parts from tents they didn't need to pitch, held in place by an iron bar in the center, lodged into the tank and held down by a handful of rocks to either side. “Mako… wake up. You're making me sleepy, too.” Sodoko suppressed a yawn as hard as she could and shook the driver quite a bit before she gave up. _I can't keep waking her up every five minutes for the next three hours. I'll go nuts._

Sitting there in silence, with only the rain all around her, Sodoko kept glancing at Mako's face. _She's gotten a bit cuter. She should cut her bangs though. And her hair is too long! It is really pretty though…_ Reaching for Mako's long hair on her back, Sodoko played with it for a few minutes. _Well… maybe having long hair is okay. She's a driver. She doesn't really have to move around a lot. And having her participate in infantry stuff…_ Sodoko made an exhausted face just thinking about it. _I'd have to carry her back. I can already see it. Some way or another, it'd end up with **me** having to carry her. But at least she manages to come to class more frequently now so I don't have to worry about her repeating a year._

Time stretched and stretched, like cheap gum, and Sodoko became increasingly bored and focused on the only interesting thing she had access to – Mako. _Has she gotten cuter lately?_ Being in the Ooarai tankery team, it felt more natural to just admit that liking girls was a pretty normal thing. Sodoko was no exception there, even though she wasn't nearly as open about it as most of the others.

“Mako?” Facing the girl with long and beautiful black hair, Sodoko got a little closer to her, their shoulders touching now. “Mako. If you're just pretending to sleep, I will get you detention.” When there was no response, Sodoko quickly and stealthily stole a kiss from Mako. It didn't faze her. After being around so many girls that liked girls, this much felt little different from a kiss on the cheek between friends. “You taste like the rain.”

“Assault,” Mako said and lightly opened just her right eye. She didn't say anything else and just looked at Sodoko, who was visibly launching into a mental scramble to find a good excuse. “If you wanna kiss, just say so. Kissing me while I sleep is assault.”

_I must be stupid to have expected something else from her._ “My bad.”

Mako closed her eyes again. “If you're not gonna do anything, lemme go back to sleep...” There was not even a yawn before Mako was back in the land of dreams.

_I can't figure out what I like about her. Everything she does is against the rules and rules are important. Well… having friends is important too. But still! It's a kiss! Don't be so nonchalant about it!_ The silence that ensured drove Sodoko almost mad. _You want me to do something? Okay then!_

Fumbling around with Mako's JSDF uniform until she got the buttons open, Sodoko slid her left arm behind Mako's back, inside the uniform. _I can't believe she actually wore the Ooarai combat uniform properly under the JSDF one._ Ignoring her duties for just a few short minutes, Sodoko opened up the Ooarai uniform as well and she could sense Mako shiver a bit and move in closer by instinct. _It is well within my rights as the public morals committee chairperson to check whether she is breaking any regulations. And look what we have here._ _A black bra? How indecent! That is definitely against school regulations._

“Molester.” Mako opened up one eye again but looked as expressionless as usual. “I'm cold now.”

Sodoko was tired of Mako's antics leading her around by the nose. “Get closer.”

“Isn't this you taking advantage of me?” Mako got closer anyway and grabbed Sodoko's other hand, pulling it towards her and resting it against her left side. “Your uniform is all cold and wet outside.”

_Taking off my uniform while I stand guard… but technically I am not on Ooarai base grounds, so our own regulations don't really apply here in the same way. I suppose, for the sake of fixing Mako's temperature and to avoid her catching a cold, I could make an exception and share some of my bodily heat with her_. Undoing her own buttons in a hurry, not just those of her JSDF uniform but also her Ooarai one, Sodoko was irritated when she saw Mako's blank look. “What?”

“I didn't say you should strip… you're a pervert. Seducing me out here in the rain where I can't run away.”

“You make me sound like an evil doer!”

“You're shouting again. Scary.” Y _ou are so easy to lead on, Sodoko._ Mako was not particularly peculiar about she was intimate with. Not that she didn't believe in love, far from it. But she also didn't think there was any harm in being a bit more free. _Saori would never let me hear the end of it if she knew about this_. Putting her arms around Midoriko's waist, Mako felt her warm body first hand. “Now there is all that temperament I was looking for...”

“I just don't freeze easily!” Sodoko huddled up with Mako. “I didn't plan on seducing you or anything. I'm not like that.”

“Eh… I was gonna say it's okay to touch my boobs and stuff.”

“Don't say _boobs_! You're a girl! Have some decency!”

“Sodoko… you're too tight. You'll never find a girlfriend like that.”

“That's fine with me!”

“It's okay. I'll take you if you can't find anyone else.”

“I don't want a lazy girlfriend that constantly sleeps everywhere, is always late to school, doesn't wear out uniform properly, is as expressionless as a teruterubozo and-”

“Mean.” Mako tightened her embrace around Sodoko's waist and – before Midoriko could even react to it – unhooked her plain white bra with one hand. “They're as small as always.”

“Excuse me for not being Takebe or Isuzu!”

“It's fine. I like small ones.” Suddenly resting her face against Sodoko's bare chest, her completely nonchalant behavior prevented Midoriko from even feel particularly embarrassed.

_It's not like anyone can see what we're doing anyway. And it's better than she's with me than someone else who would get strange ideas and possibly leave their post. Deserting is definitely against school regulations_. With Mako in this strange position, Sodoko had her hands free now and ran her right hand through Mako's hair repeatedly.

“You should grow out your hair.”

“No.”

“You'd be cuter that way.”

“Don't care.”

“Don't talk like me.”

“See how annoying that is?!”

“No. Just makes it hard to remember what I said and what you said.”

“And you're one to talk about breasts! You have barely any yourself!”

“Hm… if I had big ones like Saori I could maybe use them like cushions...”

“You definitely couldn't!”

“I can use you as cushion then...” Rubbing her cheeks against Sodoko's small breasts, Mako enjoyed how warm they were. “Comfortable...”

“Am I just a cushion to you?!”

“Talkative cushion.”

“Hey!”

“You should get some shut-eye too...” Mako yawned and crawled on top of Sodoko's lap, sitting there and facing her. “Sodoko...”

“W-What?” _Is she gonna confess to me now or something? Don't you dare!_

“You need to eat more.”

“ **Huh?!** ”

“Your lap… is not very comfortable.”

“Then get off!”

“It's not that uncomfortable.”

“Make up your mind already! And stop fondling my boobs!”

“Now you said boobs.”

“Why you…!”

“You're too tense, Sodoko… you're gonna pop a vein. It's bad for your skin to get so angry.”

“Whose fault do you think that is?!”

“Do you enjoy living like that? Always being mad?”

“Don't quote anime to me!” Sodoko didn't know what to do so she kissed Mako, without much passion, and certainly without tongue, if only to shut her up. Five seconds passed. Then fifteen. Then a full minute. _She's… gonna keep quiet now, right? She'll be shocked and-_

“You're awful at kissing.” Mako looked thoroughly unimpressed.

Even through the streaming rain Sodoko could be heard screaming _You idiot_!

=== Eisenkreuz Imouto ===

Maho and Miho looked at different ends of the tent. After Erika had left they had quickly come back to reality and it dawned on them that even though they felt the same about each other, they couldn't just jump into bed together. Maho did keep her sleeping bag in her tent in case her field bed was covered in documents as it happened frequently.

Miho was using the sleeping bag right now and it smelled like her older sister. “Maho?”

“Hm?”

“How… uhm… how long have you been feeling that way about me?”

“Since you left Kuromorimine.” Maho was much less embarrassed about the situation than Miho. She knew that she was going to be able to be completely herself around Miho from now on, but Erika blowing it all up had also taken away a lot of excitement and tension and she was still emotionally deflated.

“I'm glad.”

“Miho?”

“I was afraid that you had been feeling this way for a lot longer and kept it to yourself all that time.”

Maho was sleeping in her field bed instead. Her feet were right at the end where Miho's head was. For the time being they had decided that they would take it slow – and slow meant not sleeping in the same bed and jumping into having sex on the first night together.

“What about you?”

“Hm… I don't really know. I didn't think about it much during the nationals but I did think about you a lot when I left Kuromorimine.”

“I'm glad too.”

“We're more like than mom thinks.”

“She might disown us both if she finds out.”

“We can't let her find out then.”

“I'm still going to work to inherit the Nishizumi style. I want you to be free, Miho. Even if it means I have to marry someone and have a daughter.”

“It's strange how children in the Nishizumi family are always daughters, right?”

“Maybe the god of tankery gave us their blessing.”

“The god of tankery? What is that supposed to be?” Miho chuckled. “You say some hilarious things, sis.”

“Don't laugh!” Maho blushed and was glad that Miho couldn't see that. “I was being serious!”

“I'm sorry.” _That does make it funnier, Maho._ Miho grinned by herself. “It's… weird, talking to you like this, knowing I wasn't the only one feeling this way. Even if we feel the same it's still.. weird. We're sister.”

“Does it bother you?”

“Bother? No.”

“But you're afraid of what others will think.”

“You're not?”

“Of course I am. I would probably lose all respect from my comrades. Mother would be furious. And everyone else would probably look at both of us like we're freaks.”

“You didn't have to make a list...”

“Even if all of that could happen… I still want to be with you.”

“Maho...”

“You don't?”

“I do!”

“You worried me for a second.”

“I wouldn't lie about my feelings.”

“You have gotten cuter since the nationals, Miho.”

“Liar. I haven't changed at all. My hair is the exact same and I haven't grown in any places at all.” Ooarai took measurements rather regularly.

“Your cuteness cannot be measured by just your measurements or looks.”

“You're going to make me die of embarrassment.”

“Nishizumi Miho – retired due to embarrassment. Ooarai disqualified due to unconditional surrender of their commander.”

Miho needed a moment. “Mom would have a heart attack.”

“I wonder if she's satisfied with the way I'm leading Kuromorimine. She's probably mad that we teamed up, too.”

“I think mom is proud of you. She's already got to contend with one failure and-”

“She doesn't think of you that way. She was just… really mad that you left Kuromorimine and that you started doing your own style. I asked her what she thinks of Ooarai participating in this war. _Miho will prove to be a thorn in your side that you best remove quickly. If you don't, she might turn the tides of war against you_. I think that's her way of saying that you're strong.”

There were sniffling sounds and Maho rose up in her bed. “Miho? Are you crying?”

“I'm… just glad she's not angry with me anymore.”

“It must have been hard for you when you first went to Ooarai.”

“It must have been even harder for you!”

“Yeah.” Maho rubbed her temples for a few seconds. “But I knew that if I carried on the Nishizumi style the way mother wants, she wouldn't force you back into it. And I think the style does suit me. But I think once I attend university, or enter the pro league, I'm going to stop pretending like I don't care.”

“You're one of the nicest people around after all.”

“Y-You think so?”

“It's true.”

“Everyone out there would declare you insane if you said that to them.”

“That's okay. It's enough if I know, for now.”

“Are you sure that you're not the nicest girl-” Maho was interrupted halfway.

“{Commander. Permission to enter?}”

Maho quickly peeled herself out of bed and grabbed her clothes. She was dressed in record time and just gestured Miho to stay in her sleeping bag “{Enter.}”

Miho didn't recognize the girl so she was either someone that had joined after she left or a first year.

The girl was well aware of the protocols regarding disturbing the commander at night. “{A number of hostiles was fired on by the guards at the northern perimeter.}”

“{Origin?}”

“{Unknown.}”

“{Numbers?}”

“{At least six, unknown if there are more out there.}”

“Maho, what's goin-” Miho cringed. “[Maho, situation?]” Miho didn't really _speak_ German, she just knew some words and phrases from memorization.

Maho looked terribly out of place as she tried to explain with gesturing and with as little German as possible that there were assailants of unknown origin at the northern edge of the base.

“{Hostiles. In the North.}” Miho was glad when Maho nodded enthusiastically and she also felt a bit embarrassed because the guard, who had been rather tense as she reported to Maho, looked almost giddy. She gave Miho a big smile and a subtle thumbs up behind Maho's back.

“{Wake up the infantry.}”

“{Understood.}”

“{Triple the guard on the northern perimeter and double the guard on the other sides.}” Maho treated every act of aggression with utmost seriousness.

The girl repeated her answer and saluted.

“{Dismissed.}” Maho had the guard dismissed and grabbed her rain coat, then turned around and knelt next to Miho. “Get everyone from Ooarai that is trained in infantry to show up in rain gear and armed.” Whispering to her, Maho ran out of the tent just seconds later.

Miho was almost right behind her, bursting out of the sleeping bag and throwing on her clothes in a hurry. She didn't have a rain coat but that didn't stop her from leaving the tent. The base was on high alert and German orders and reports were barked back and forth from everywhere. The rain had gotten even worse and the ground was a big muddy mess at this point. Water splashed under heavy boots, mud covered those very same boots and everything near the ground.

A number of Kuromorimine and Ooarai soldiers were watching from the entrance of the tent. Yukari was not one of them. Armed with two Howa Type 89, assault rifles – one for primary use and one for back – Yukari made for quite the imposing soldier, organizing the Ooarai forces that were trained in ground combat. Excluding the six that kept guard, of which only the volleyball team was trained in combat, Yukari temporarily commandeered twelve people. For a small school like Ooarai, it was important to not be helpless in the event of a ground assault.

Miho found Yukari pretty quickly, wielding a Howa Type 89 herself – it was the standard weapon that Ooarai had access to. Only a few select members wielded other weapons. “Kuromorimine has detected an unknown number of hostiles!” Miho didn't like raising her voice but if she needed to shout, **she could**. Her voice carried effortlessly through the rain, and the passing Kuromori students were watching with an improved opinion of Ooarai. Despite the rain and a lack of rain coats, there was no complaining or behavior out of line. “My understanding is that there are at least six confirmed hostiles with the possibility of a lot more being out there in the dark. Because of the bad visibility, we will move in two squads of seven. I will be leading Kawashima, Nekota, Momoga, Piyotan, Caesar, Saemonza. Akiyama will lead Erwin, Oryou, Nakajima, Hoshino, Suzuki, Tsuchiya. Stay in radio contact with regular reports every 150 seconds. Move at single place. Take extra care to move in formation with Kuromorimine! Avoid friendly fire at all costs!”

All thirteen, including Yukari, of her soldiers slammed their heels together. “Roger!”

Drones were flying all over the place and Miho was not happy about that. It was difficult to coordinate with an army they couldn't really talk to. Even reports between foot soldiers counted as official business in a situation like this. “Erwin!” Miho singled out the blonde. “Explain basic directions and commands like _Hold your fire_ to everyone over radio. Keep your channel open and keep talking until we are a hundred meters past the outer line.”

German shouting, Maho's shouting, pierced the veil of water all around them and Miho turned around to see Maho shouting in German – standing on top of a tank, in full uniform and armed with a MG4 in hand. _She looks like a real soldier._ “Don't let Kuromori show us up!”

Ooarai let out a battle cry and Miho had them break into the assigned teams immediately. Maho was still shouting and a squad of six moved past Miho in double tempo – not quite running but much faster than just marching speed.

Miho advanced with her squad and the ground just outside the base was in an even worse condition than inside. It was pitch black and despite Kuromori's wealth, they had no flood lights. Small flashlights were mounted on the guns themselves, not by the manufacturer but by the soldiers themselves – flashlights were available in abundance and tape was cheap. It was the best they could do.

“How the damn heck are attackers moving through this darkness and rain? I can swim in my boots, I'm wet to the bone and I can't see a thing!” Momo complained.

“Kawashima, save your complaining for later.” Miho reprimanded her immediately and the girl shut up with her teeth gritting.

Systematically spreading out in a half circle and advancing slowly, Momoga all of a sudden pushed Saemonza and Caesar, advacing side by side, out of the way like they were bags filled with air. Several bullets flew right over their heads. “Enemy fire!” Caesar shouted. _How the heck did she know we were about to be fired upon?_

“Commander, enemy fire from 190- One o' clock!” Momoga had excellent eye-sight and her short height belied her physical strength – which was top of the line within Ooarai.

Miho made a decision right away. “All hands open fire!”

Within an instant, all of the Ooarai soldiers threw themselves into the mud beneath the grass, ignoring how it splattered all over their uniforms and weaponry, on their cheeks and hair. More bullets soared over their heads mere seconds after.

Even Momoga could no longer make out where the bullets were coming from but they fired at the exact location she had previously identified. A hail of paint bullets roared into the dark in front of them. “Cease fire!” Miho gave the order just seconds after she had given the last one.

Alarmed by Ooarai's firing, Kuromorimine had halted their advanced. Miho watched in amazement as Maho passed by her, completely ignoring her, carrying a large slab of plastic. _Riot shields?! Kuromorimine has riot shields?_ Miho was impressed when a group of eight, including her sister, marched past them. “[Folgen und sichern!]” Maho shouted at them.

Another Kuromorimine soldier, one without a shield, sprinted towards them from the back, gesturing the Ooarai troops to get up and follow the shielded squadron – and protect their back.

Ooarai could feel their heartbeat hammer in their ears. This was the first time they had been fired upon in live combat. Although it would only end with possibly being removed from the competition, to them it was like death – dishonorable death.

Forming a perfect line behind the shield squadron in reverse, Miho heard Maho give orders constantly over radio. She couldn't understand almost anything but on instinct alone she could tell that they were systematically sweeping the area – Maho had trained her soldiers well.

Firing sounds came from the east of the shielded group, from the direction of a Kuromori squad led by a second year called Sheska and the firing sounds came closer quickly. “{Snipers! Take cover!}” One of the girls shouted and these were words that Miho understood.

“Take cover! Snipers are firing on them!” Kneeling down, the shield squad formed a ring around them, their legs tight together. Each of the Ooarai soldiers aimed at the exact gap between shields and had their nuzzle poke through it. They could fire in any direction at a moment's notice.

There were screams of pain and agony from the same direction and then firing noises came from the west – the exact opposite direction as before. _With this many hostiles around… this has to be one of the larger schools. Saunders and Gloriana? Maybe Pravda? Pravda is definitely tough enough to traverse all this way in the rain. Those girls might as well be made of steel and fueled by vodka._ Miho was just holding position at the moment, it being far too dangerous to run around when the troops were being fired upon from both sides.

Yukari, about forty meters away from Miho, had her face almost touching the mud beneath the slick grass – Erwin was right next to her and had been shot. “Where did you get hit?”

“Right leg.”

“How bad?”

“I think it just strafed me.”

Yukari crawled around Erwin, ripping the flashlight from her assault rifle and putting it between her teeth. Shining light on Erwin's leg, she saw where she had gotten hit. Talking with the flashlight in her mouth, nothing she said was eligible in any way. The pain bullets did leave bruises when they landed a direct hit, which was used as secondary confirmation of a hit. If her leg was bruised, she was most likely going to be disqualified – a soldier couldn't serve very well with a perforated leg.

_For Rommel to go out like this..._ Erwin tried to sound sarcastic but she was really tense. Bullets were still passing over their heads and it wasn't really being hit that scared her – having to leave the competition and leaving Ooarai crippled without a proper translator, that was what really worried her. Casualties in war were normal, but she didn't want to die yet.

Drool was running down Yukari's chin, not that it was possible to tell that through the rain, and she was finally finished checking Erwin's leg. Having to roll up the completely wet trousers was a real drag while lying down. Taking the flashlight from her mouth, Yukari switched guns – there was no way she could get it taped back on in this rain. “You're lucky.”

“I knew it was nothing.” Erwin rolled over and grabbed the rifle she had dropped. Soldiers all around her were firing at the dark up ahead. And then the firing stopped. Then the advance stopped as well. Something had happened. Yukari's com buzzed and she hit the button to listen. “Return to base. Threat has been neutralized.”

Yukari, covered in mud and feeling like she had just taken an ice bath, rose and put her thumb and index finger between her lips. A horrifyingly loud, sharp whistle caught the attention of everyone around her. “Return to base!”

There were no questions of _why_ and _what happened_ directed at Yukari. They were at war and they were soldiers. It had only been a few months of training but they understood well how a soldier had to behave.

“What do you think happened?” Oryou had caught up to Erwin – she had preciously advanced past them and opened fire at the spot she thought had fired the bullet that hit Erwin.

Erwin herself limped a bit – the bullet had only hit the side of her leg and in such cases she was allowed to continue participating at full physical capacity after a medic had cleared her. Until then she was treated as someone injured.

“This whole attack feels off. The threat was neutralized far too quickly.” _Something is fishy. There is no way any school would be stupid enough to attack Kuromorimine at night with so few forces that they could be wiped out in less than fifteen minutes after the initial engagement. Something strange is going on here_.

=== Panzer Halt ===


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Immersion Note:
> 
> [text] indicates that the text is actually said in the specific language. As such. english is english, italian is italian and such. This is primarily the case for Tea and Cola, since the language for both armies there is english.
> 
> Since it would be difficult to keep all the German as actual German text, I am introducing {text} instead, which differs in that is signalizes that the text is actually spoken German but displayed as English for the purpose of readability by the audience. I still occasionally replace a word or two with German within {text} but otherwise keep to English.

“{So we know basically nichts about the attackers then.}” Maho was above shouting at her girls for things they couldn't change. The rain washed away foot prints and tracks in no time flat. “{Waffen from Waffle, Yoghurt… whoever attacked uns has been doing some real scavenging or stealing.}”

Attendance in the large operations tent was quite high. Maho and her direct subordinates, including Erika, Sheska and Alice, as well as Miho and **her** direct subordinates, in this case Yukari, Erwin and Anzu.

“What's she saying?” Yukari whispered to Erwin. They were all cold and wet and really wanting to go back to sleep. Despite that, they stood still while their leaders discussed the attack and what to do.

“That the attackers had gear from other schools.” Erwin usually wouldn't bother to make translations in-between official responses, but she made an exemption for Yukari. She was not the type to lie to herself and after knowing Miho was not going to be the insurmountable wall she thought her to be, there was no point in hold back. “That girl, Erika, is now saying that the foot prints they **could** find are all from different boots – not just sizes but also makes.”

While Erwin translated it for Miho, Sheska poked Erika in the side. “{You telling me it's a coincidence we ally up and then our base gets attacked in the same night for the first time ever?}” Sheska hissed at Erika. She believed very strongly in teamwork but Ooarai was not part of the team.

“{Shut up, Sheska. Or you'll do night guard duty for a week.}” Erika hissed back and both of them stood extra still when Maho turned her head slightly and glanced at them with a cold look.

“Do you think we were followed?” Miho was still discussing matters with her sister. Erwin translated back and forth for her as quickly as she could, sometimes cutting corners 

“{It's möglich. But following a panzer gruppe… we would have spotted enemy tanks, so they must have followed you on foot. But who could have done that? They carried automatische weapons with them. The machine gun we found weighted almost 25 kilos. Even our top field officers would have issues with that.}”

“How much physical training must they have done… Our anteater team is really capable and strong… I know they could do something like that, but they are just three people.”

“{I am viel mehr concerned with the weapons we found. Once a team is beaten, they pack things up and leave. They don't leave behind their waffen and equipment. That means whoever attacked us has taken weapons, or been given weapons, from or by other schools. And this can't have happened earlier today. The time frame is too short.}”

Erwin struggled a little and made a small mistake she quickly corrected. She felt embarrassed, messing up in front of Yukari. But to her delight, Yukari was smirking at her.

“I guess even the mighty Rommel makes a mistake some times.”

Miho slid her hands over her face, tired, exhausted and at the limits of her mental capacity. “There is not a lot we can do right now. They are not going to attack again. This was not a real attack but designed to rattle us. It worked, but we need to show that we know their hand. No increased guards, just the normal amount. No special anything. We just carry on as we were. Spoiling their efforts by knowing what exactly they wanted.”

“{As expected of my little sister.}” Maho had thought something similar, but for her it had been more of a guess. And she had thought about the opposite – canvassing the area nearby, a show of strength. The risk of poking the bee's nest, so to speak. “{We will go with that.}” Maho delegated informing the troops to Sheska, not Erika, and Miho asked Erwin to help out with coordination between the armies.

Maho was so overworked that she fell into bed, tired beyond her mind, uncaring that she was still in wet clothes and wearing her boots.

“Geez, sis… at least take off your clothes.” Miho was less tired and took it upon herself to ensure that Maho didn't wake up sick. Untying the laces of her sister's boots, it took quite a bit of effort to pull them. Rolling Maho over, so she was flat on her back now, with bare feet, Miho unbuttoned the uniform and started by taking off the shirt. “You could at least wake up while I strip you!” Miho complained as she pulled the wet uniform off of her sister. Luckily, she didn't have the Kuromorimine uniform on beneath that, there hadn't been time for such a thing.

If her hair hadn't been wet from the rain, the storm, Miho definitely thought it would be now from her sweat. Rolling Maho into bed properly, if only to sit by her and gaze at her sister who was in just her underwear now. Running her hand over Maho's abs, Miho felt a shiver. _She must have trained a lot for this. I can really feel her muscles_. Her hand moved down on Maho's legs, again and again. Miho had a little bit of a leg fetish.

Bending down, Miho looked very closely at Maho's legs, her thighs, her knees, her calves. _She really trained… there is not a… no fat at all. It's so firm and smooth and…_ Before she knew what she was doing, Miho's tongue left a slightly hot trail of saliva on Maho's right thigh. When asked by the two people who knew, Miho would still insist that she only had a little bit of a leg fetish.

But as excited as it made Miho, exhaustion was an uncaring and cruel mistress that indulged no one's needs. Migraine was looming on the nearby horizon and Miho knew it. Completely ignoring Maho's upper body, she just covered up her sister and started to take off her own clothes. _Tomorrow is gonna be a long day… but any day I can spend with sis with my feelings out in the open is a good day. And since we're both commanders, we have so many excuses to spend time alone._

Lying down in her sleeping bag, Miho felt her whole body ache for a second. Waking up in the middle of the night was stressful, even for her. And she had practiced that back at school, knowing that night attacks were definitely going to be a thing. It only took her a few minutes to fall back asleep. That too had been part of her training.

While the commanders slept occasionally operations never slept. A few girls from Ooarai, still wide awake from the thrill of the sudden battle at night, were helping out, much to the delight of Kuromorimine's night shift. Hana, Erwin and Noriko were moving about tables, chairs and equipment, one by one, to make the space bigger to accommodate Ooarai starting the next day.

Taking a break, Erwin sat down on a nearby table that hadn't been moved yet but the equipment had already been put elsewhere. “I knew I wouldn't get any sleep if I just went to lie down but I think I'll be so grumpy tomorrow from lack of sleep.”

One of the Kuromorimine girls said something to her in German and Erwin started laughing. When she got strange looks from Hana, she explained. “She said _If you're grumpy in the morning after working way too hard and way too long, you'll be a real soldier._ ”

Hana chuckled. “I'm glad I managed to pass the field test. I wouldn't be able to share in these experiences with all of you without that.”

“You **barely** passed, right?”

“I was the last one during the final test. If I had been one minute slower, Miho would have restricted me to just tank operations. I would not have even be allowed to stand guard.”

“You know I wonder if they have any super soldiers. We got only the one.”

Hana's expression was a large question mark. “You talk about Yukari a lot.”

Erwin immediately jumped off the table, shouted in German at the Kuromori girls and got an answer. “Can you help me move that?”

Hana was very sensitive and perceptive to the feelings of others and in this case she didn't even have to be that to be able to tell what was going on. Helping Erwin lift the table, each of them grabbed one end, they slowly moved it to the side. “Why don't you ask her out?”

“That obvious?”

“I would say so, yes.” Hana could not help but smirk a little. “But I can also see that Yukari idolizes Miho, but those feelings won't be returned. Miho… I cannot tell if she likes anyone at all. But that lonely air around her is lovely, too.”

“You sound like one of those esoteric people.”

“Well, I am in the business of flower arrangement.” Hana's gentle smile put a smile on Erwin's face as well.

“I don't ask her out because she idolizes Miho so much. I feel like I'd just play second fiddle all the time. Maybe if we end up in the college.”

“Idolizing someone is different from loving them.” Noriko, who had been listening in on the conversation all this time, offered her opinion. “You can be number one when it comes to romance. Miho will be number one when it comes to her idols. And tankery will obviously still be her number one past time and probably career choice.”

“That's some unusual wisdom coming from the volleyball team's setter.” Erwin was a little curious where that wisdom was coming from. “Anything else you wanna share with the class?”

“Never date more than one girl.” Noriko sounded so genuine that both Hana and Erwin looked at her with big eyes. “Even if they don't fight over you… it's tiring.”

“Where is this coming from?” Hana was a little worried about Noriko now. “Are you being forced by someone to entertain them?”

“Huh?” The question caught Noriko so off guard that her sour expression lifted. “Nothing like that.”

“She's seeing the three others from her team at the same time. Right?” Erwin was almost a hundred percent sure of that.

“It's so hard to know what Taeko thinks, Shinobu is pretty pushy and Akebi gets upset pretty easily… being with them is almost as much work and exhausting as those field drills.”

“Ouch,” Erwin said so with a big, smug grin. “Wait, don't tell me you're also with them at night.” When Noriko didn't answer and just walked away, Erwin herself blushed. “Wow.”

Her hand briefly covering her mouth, Hana yawned, loudly enough for everyone to hear. “I am going to return to my tent. Erwin, you should think about what Noriko and I told you. This competition is a great chance to strengthen a bond. Or start a new one.”

“That doesn't sound too convincing coming from you. I know you have your eye on **someone** , just not who.” Erwin was pretty sharp herself.

“Precisely why I know that this is a fabulous chance for both of us.”

“Get a room you two.” Noriko on the other hand was not that sharp when it came to other people. Things had taken a little bit of a strange turn and all of a sudden she was stuck with having an insanely complicated relationship situation. But Hana had already left, quickly dashing through the rain to make it to her tent, to where Saori was waiting. At least for tonight, she could share a bed of sorts with the girl she liked.

=== Eisenkreuz Imouto ===

Morning came and with morning came the endless continuation of the rain. Miho and Maho looked out of their tent together, holding hands behind their back so not even someone right in front of them could have noticed. “Cyclone.” Miho didn't need to be a meteorologist to make that assertion. They were on the ocean, the rain was unforgiving and strong without any break. “I'm glad the battlefield is so big that we cannot feel it when the ship shakes in the storm.”

Maho didn't trust the rain to have gotten rid of all the drones so she resorted to whispering. “You studied a lot for this.”

Miho just smiled and squeezed her sister's hand. “We gotta get to work.”

And there was a lot to do. Before eight, Miho shouted orders at her soldiers. While Ooarai functioned with Miho as the supreme commander who handled pretty much everything, Kuromorimine had a real hierarchical system of rank and order. One of Maho's subordinates was helping Miho oversee construction of the Ooarai base, which was between the steep cliff and Kuromorimine's base. Everyone looked sour and displeased over having to work in the rain but there was not a complaint to be heard around Miho.

The construction took almost the entire day. Only twice did the Nishizumi sisters manage to see each other during that time, all the while the rain made everyone consistently more and more miserable, praying for it to stop soon. Miho's tent was already up by noon and Maho had decided to force her to take a ten minute break to eat something. Sitting there, their wet secondary uniforms hanging on a metal bar inside the tent, Miho and Maho enjoyed some cup noodles. It was easy to prepare, easy to preserve and easily digested. For a soldier, important qualities.

Blowing on her fried chilly chicken flavor noodles, Miho slid sideways over the bed and rubbed shoulders with her sister right before she offered her those same noodles with her chop sticks.

Without so much as blushing, Maho's mouth lunged for the offering and slurped up all of which she didn't get in the first bite. Stirring her own food, Maho responded in kind, offering Miho some mixed seafood flavor noodles instead. “Be careful. It's not.”

Blowing on the noodles offered to her, Miho felt her sister's breath on her cheek. _She's so close… I could just turn around and her lips would be right there…_ Feeling her heart beat faster and faster as she thought that, Miho swallowed her nervousness and ate the offering instead. _I did that last night but… I'm not ready for k-kissing._ Miho was still in the middle of processing that by some miracle, her incestuous feelings were returned just as strong if not stronger by her older sister.

“Mom is definitely going to disown both of us this time.” Miho leaned against her sister and enjoyed the comfortable warmth of both the girl by her side and the warm cup in her hands.

“I kept how much I care for you a secret from her for this long. It should not be difficult to keep this a secret as well.” Maho hesitated to put her left arm around Miho's shoulder, leaving her chop sticks in the cup. “You know… don't you think Alice has been a little suspicious since you came to our side?”

“Suspicious?” Miho blushed a little when she felt Maho's hand on her left waist. “You think she is going to try and take control over Kuromorimine from you?”

“I don't know. But she's brought up our mother repeatedly. It feels like she kind of… knows about us. Even before there really was an **us** in that way.”

“Alice doesn't seem like the kind of person that would try to leverage other people. Especially not with our mom. I mean… mom would probably not even talk to her because she's a Shimada.”

“Do you think Ooarai would have been able to do things on its own if Alice had joined?”

“No.” Miho didn't need to think about that at all. “Alice is a big asset to you because she has tanks and peoples to command. Even if Alice joined, we wouldn't have any tanks or people to spare.”

“My poor little sister.”

Miho groaned. “I am forbidding you from making any more puns.”

“I didn't mean it that way.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Then it's fine. But you're still not allowed to make puns.”

“What about German puns?”

“I wouldn't understand them anyway.”

“I'm surprised you didn't learn a language, Miho.”

Huddling up against Maho even more when a gust of cold and wet air blew into the tent through the entrance, Miho shivered for a moment because Maho slid her hand below her Ooarai combat uniform top. “I was too busy learning infantry tactics, overseeing everyone, training myself and coming up with measures against teams like Kuromori that have so many more tanks. I figured that we could stay clear of massive encounters and whittle away the enemy forces little by little but I didn't account for the supplies being so hard to come by.”

“This type of match really puts smaller schools at a disadvantage.” Maho remembered a specific small school that was still giving her headache. “Speaking of which… I am still worried about Anzio.”

“We barely know anything about them.” Miho could count the things she did know on one hand. “I didn't have the personnel to send spies to other schools and get information on their capabilities.”

“Kuromorimine doesn't engage in shady business such as spying.” Maho didn't hesitate at all with saying that.

“Not even with Alice there?”

“Alice has her own sub unit but I think she would have brought any information to me. We do get along.”

“You do?”

N-Not like that! There is nothing to be jealous about! I only have eyes… for you.”

Miho giggled and chuckled and held in how happy she was. “Silly, I just didn't think you'd get along with Alice. She can be a little bit… it's hard to know what she's thinking and feeling, unless it's boko related.”

“I don't understand what either of you see in that stuff, but if it makes you happy, I'm glad it's still around.”

“You know, it makes you suspicious how quickly you tried to assure me there is nothing between Alice and you. Do you have something to hide?”

“No!” Maho nearly shouted and then she felt very stupid because she saw Miho's smug face. “You're teasing me. You impish little sister.”

“Sorry.” Miho put the cup to her mouth and drank the broth, which really warmed her insides. “I also didn't think they wouldn't hold the competition for rain.”

“It's really like we're at war.”

“Germany and Japan were allied in world war two, too.”

“But the world basically says we were the bad guys.” Maho didn't mind being the bad guy if it went she had Miho with her. “As long as I can fight on the same side as you, I don't care how much of a bad guy I will become.”

“You're way too nice to ever make it as a bad guy, Maho.” Fishing the last bit of noodles from her cup, Miho put the now empty container on the ground. “Our break is almost over.”

“Miho, is it okay if… I come over tonight?”

“It'll be less suspicious if I come to you to talk strategy.” Now Miho blushed. “But you shouldn't put the sleeping bag away yet.”

“O-Of course.” Maho, too, blushed when she thought about sharing a bed with Miho. Her sister wasn't the only one that was still processing the new state of things.

“ **Miho**?!” Someone was shouting outside and the Ooarai commander recognized the voice.

“Looks like our break is up.” Getting up, and feeling a little cold when Maho's hand slipped away, Miho turned around and nearly bumped heads with her sister when she kissed her on the forehead just before dashing out of the tent.

Nearly three minutes later, Erika came looking for Maho and found her petrified on Miho's bed. A pain unlike any other, like a knife she had swallowed and that was now twisted inside her chest, hit her but she would not let that deter her from doing her duties. “Maho.” Erika just stood there and waited for about five seconds. “ **Maho**!”

Startled, Maho jumped up, downed the almost cold remains of her noodles in one go and immediately stepped past Erika, in full commander mode. As happy as she was, she didn't want to fail her team over her feelings.

Around four in the afternoon, the Ooaria base was standing and functioning, albeit pretty wet. An effort was made to at least keep the interiors of tents and the more important open operations, such as the command tent, dry all around. Thanks to the forest, the ground was very stable, even after a full twenty-four hours of pouring downfall.

Both commanders were present in the joint operations tent that bordered both camps at the same time. Miho stood side by side with Maho, which rubbed a few of the Kuromorimine students the wrong way because they believed the Ooarai commander ought to know her place, coming from a lesser school and everything. Maho was giving a motivating speech in German and while Miho didn't understand almost any of the words, she did make out what it was all about by just tone and through Maho's gesturing.

Ooarai as a while felt a little intimidated when the Kuromorimine soldiers raised their left arms and started shouting _Sieg Reich_ in unison. Then it was Miho's turn. “Our enemies shall tremble before the combined forces of our German-Japanese alliance. We will put a stop to the threat of the communist regime, to the rampant capitalism that is destroying the western world. Pravda. Saunders. Gloriana. All of these are names you well know. Soldiers that you have fought before. Where you have tasted bitter defeat and sweet victory. But no more will we be content with just _victory_. We will be relentless. We will show them that there are no forces in this world that trained harder than we did. That is more dedicated than we are. To the outside world, the code of warriors has died with the samurai, well over a century ago! But it lives on in us. Our swords traded in for rifles. Our horses have become beasts of steel that obey our every command. But our iron will, our unfaltering desire for victory, remains just as it was back then! We will show our German brethren that Japan is a force more than capable, more than worthy, more than desired to stand with them, to fight with them. We do not fear defeat – we embrace it. Because that is what we will bring to our enemies without fail, without mercy and without regret!” Miho made a small pause, no more than one and a half seconds, before she raised her fist well above her head. “ **バンザイ** !”

And the thirty-one soldiers of Ooarai cheered as loud as the much more numerous Germans had before them.

Maho stood next to Miho, proud of her ability to raise morale and inspire. Of course, getting into characters and playing on the past history of war and their tanks had been her recommendations, but Miho had come up with what to say all on her own. _She's grown. I couldn't imagine the Miho from half a year ago being able to say these things without fumbling her words or stopping midway._ Maho's glance swayed a little. _She's grown in other places too…_

Maho stepped forward when Miho kicked her left foot from the side. It was time. “{Infantry squad four, five, six, eight and ten, begin combat prep immediately. Sortie in twenty.}”

Miho gave her orders as well. “All infantry teams prepare for dispatch immediately.” Miho looked to Maho.

_Thirty minutes ago_

“{In this weather}?” Maho poured over maps that were laid out on the table. They had been drawn up by Kuromorimine members that had studied a bit of cartography back at school. Maho had deemed that a necessary skill since there were no pre-existing maps of the battlefield and given the size, knowing where what was at any given time was important.

“Because it is this weather.” Miho looked to Erwin, who kept translating back and forth. Miho was picking up on some keywords, but she just didn't have the time and capacity to learn a new language on the fly. “Everyone is stuck with their tanks on standby. No one _wants_ to go out in that rain, especially not traverse long distances in combat gear, take on enemies and then march all the way back. But that is what makes everyone vulnerable. We saw last night how intensely disruptive night attacks can be. In this weather, any attack at all will be just as dangerous. Sabotage. Infiltrations. Combat. Those three, in that order by priority, should be our main goal right now.”

“{I understand what you're saying Miho, aber Pravda is much too far from here. It would take us hours to get there. And by then, everyone will be too erschöpft to fight.}”

“That's why Sabotage and Infiltration are out primary concerns.” Miho waved over Momoga, driver of the anteater team, who put down a map from Ooarai that was much more crude than Kuromorimine's but had data on enemy movements that the German's lacked.

“{That cannot be right.}” Maho noticed a certain oddity and compared things with her own maps. “{Are you saying they have been hiding right under our noses all this time?}”

“After asking around and checking your maps, it is a blind spot. The other side of the hill is covered in dense forest and surrounded by terrain highly unsuitable for tanks. It would be almost impossible to get tanks in and out of that forest.” Miho pointed to the green circle on the map. “But if you specifically looked to hide in the shadow of a great school, this spot is almost too valuable to be real. Once you checked the location, and someone picked up on that, they determined that you ruled out the area because it was too hard to keep an eye on. Surveying the forest on foot would be a lot of effort for almost certainly no result.”

Maho's eyes widened when she listened to Miho's explanation and then Erwin's translation. Officially, they still had to do that and Erwin felt a little stupid because of it. Miho and Maho were speaking with their indoor voices, which made it hard for anyone more than a meter away to understand what they were saying. Erwin functioned like a speaker, an amplifier, in that regard, because her voice carried quite the distance.

“{But what for? Why just hide?}”

“For a small school, it is a very clever move.” Miho could see why Maho didn't really understand. “If viewed from the standpoint of the traditional Nishizumi style, hiding and letting the others fight things out seems cowardly and pointless. But at the end of the competition, when everyone is worn down, they might be hungry and bored out of their minds, but their equipment will be in top condition. And being so close to your base, they could hit you by surprise before you could even mobilize.”

“{So that's why you brought up this weather. They definitely won't expect an attack now.}”

“With their isolation, chances are they do not know that we joined forces. Few, if anyone at all, should know. It's up to you, but I think we should use just my soldiers to attack them. There is another target that is within reach.”

“{Nein.}” Maho's answer was short, decisive and fueled by anger. “{I told you Miho. Kuromorimine does not engage in shady business. They will be destroyed. **Wir** werden sie zerstören.}”

“Maho, I know it must be hard to-” Miho's plea hit on deaf ears. 

As much as Maho loved Miho, she really was dedicated to carrying on the Nishizumi style of tankery. And that called for retribution brought by herself, not by her little sister. “{Miho, I am not going to compromise on this. I won't need alle of my infantry soldaten, but it will be Kuromorimine who rectifies their own mistake.}”

Miho shifted gears from one moment to the next. “The other target is four clicks from here, south-south-west from here – 197 degrees.” A perfect north was zero degrees and 180 was a perfect south. “They are a bigger target and you know that they are there. But instead of wiping them out, we should focus on the aforementioned goals. Even if you go out to destroy that thorn in your side, make sure to take as much as you can carry, especially munitions, fuel and supplies.”

“{Looting is dishonorable.}”

“Starving and possibly giving up a clear edge and advantage because of pride is far more dishonorable. History is written by the victors. Us.” Miho appeal worked exactly the way she wanted.

“{I will not compromise on going to destroy them myself but you are correct. We will take everything they have before we destroy them.}”

_There is a loophole with the rules. If they imprison the final survivor of a team, they can hold her for up to 24 hours before she is designated as **lost** and disqualified. 24 hours to strip away their base, which has to remain as long as the team has not been fully disqualified. But Maho is too much of a by the rules person to consider that. And I don't want her to betray what she believes in for me. I would feel terrible if she wanted that from me, too_. Miho put a stone, a small pebble, on the spot where the other target was. “I will need at least twenty people for this. Counting myself, I have fourteen from Ooarai. That is everyone that passed my infantry qualifications test.”

“{I will send squad eight and ten with you. They specialize in support, cover and long range fire, so they will not be much help at the actual base. But you're looking to avoid a real fight, richtig?}”

“Yes. The twenty are split into four groups. Sabotage. Infiltrations. Decoy. Cover.” Miho had gotten the idea from the midnight attack on their own base.

Maho put one and one together and could see what Miho's plan was. “{I am sending Alice's infantry squad with you.}”

Alice was there in the tent with them and nodded at Miho. She understood military protocol well enough to know that waving at a superior was not generally considered a good idea. But she was happy. Fighting against Miho was night and thrilling, but so far she hadn't had the chance to fight with her and she was really looking forward to it.

_Current Time_

Back in her own tent, Miho double checked her equipment. A pistol, minebea 9mm, check. A signal flare gun and three kinds of signal flares, check. A flat cache, remodeled from a laptop carrying case, holding counterfeit materials to leave incriminating evidence, check. Various smaller utility tools, all there. Short range Ooarai frequency communication pieces, in order. It would be her first real and serious sortie as an infantry force. She was very good at tankery, but when it came to field operations, she actually left Yukari largely in charge of moment to moment operations.

Her heart was beating hard, her blood rushing through her body like she was injected with pure adrenaline. Her breathing irregular and her mind foggy, Miho felt nervousness hold her in its palm. _Calm down… calm down… deep breaths… deep…_ But the more she tried to calm down, the more nervous she got. Going out on foot, being in charge of twenty people, was a big responsibility for someone with no field experience in doing just that. They had done a few matches inside of Ooarai, drills to train for this, but Miho didn't feel confident.

Her stress evaporates when two strong arms embraced her, covered in the uniform of the German military, the Bundeswehr. “Sis.”

“You'll do fine.”

“Your arms are shaking.”

“Because I am excited to be able to do this.”

“You're so dependable.” _Even though I can tell you're nervous._

“An older sister has to be.”

“So what do I have to be?”

“A lethal amount of cute.”

“A **lethal** amount?”

“Is that not how people say it? Sheska told me.”

Miho really felt her nervousness go away as she chuckled. “Don't die.”

“There is always the possibility that a stray bullet hits me so… I know we haven't had a lot of time to process… to be **together** but just in case I don't make it-”

Miho saw no way to deny that request. And deep down, she had been thinking the same. Turning around, without breaking the embrace, Miho aimed for a kiss on the cheek but changed course part of the way, sharing her first real kiss with Maho, her own sister. She could feel the cold rain on Maho's lips, and beneath that, a warmth fire that made her feel at home. The atmosphere was not romantic or delightful in any way, but for just that one moment, the two sisters were in a different universe, where only the other one mattered to them. And it really was just a quick kiss. No tongue, no nibbling or playful biting. “We can… continue if we both make it back.”

“I am going to burn them to the ground so hard their school is going to close.”

“Maho!”

“Ah...” Remembering that Ooarai had been in danger of closure at least **twice** over the pasty ear, Maho realized what an idiotic comment that was. “I'm sorry Miho.”

“You can burn them to the ground hard enough that even the first years of next year will feel the humiliation.” Miho was certainly not sadistic but she wasn't the type to have mercy on her opponents. This she inherited from her mother and the Nishizumi style.

“Now that is what a Nishizumi should sound like.”

“Don't tell mom I said that.”

“Said **what**?” Maho let go of Miho, lest someone came in and caught them in a compromising situation. “Whoever gets back first warms up the tent.”

“Judging by how far we have to walk, that has to be you. But which tent is **the** tent?”

“Yours. Mine is full of papers and very stuffy.”

“Listen to us.” Miho smirked. “Discussing things like a secret couple would.”

Maho blushed just the tiniest bit, invisible in the dim light of Miho's tent. “Aren't we that?”

The younger Nishizumi averted her face and felt the heat rise around her nose She loved Maho, but for her to actually acknowledge they were a _couple…_ it made her nervous all over again. “We're late already. Lets go.”

_Ten minutes later_

Not marching but running through the rain in full combat gear, Miho's night raid unit, moving in two groups of ten in a double layered hexagonal formation to provide maximum awareness to all sides. Miho had studied unconventional warfare, trying to counteract the numerical deficit.

Scarcely a word was said as they ran and ran, their heavy breathing drowned out by the rain. Alice, who everyone in Ooarai presumed to be lagging behind, was surprisingly nimble and agile. Carrying the bare essentials, her low height and weight made her steps on the unstable terrain less stressful. Where others sunk a full centimeter into the mud, she almost stood on solid ground.

Miho was the northern edge of the inner hexagon of the first unit, Yukari in front of her, Piyotan and Nekota acting as the north-east and south-west guards of the ubber ring.

In the end, team alignments had changed slightly – Miho had taken nine others from Ooarai and sent the others with Maho because they were among the lowest ranking of the infantry able people. The much shorter distance and focused fighting instead of prolonged operations was more suitable for them. Two people from the duck team was present in Miho's hexagon, Shinobu and Akebi, forming the outer layer together with Yukari and two girls from the former automobile club, Suzuki and Hoshino, the two tall members of team leopon. The inner layer consisted of Miho herself, two from the anteater team, Nekota and Piyotan, as well as Erwin and Nakajima, the commander of team leopon.

“[Kommandeur.]” One of the Kuromorimine girls notified Alice that it was time. Alice promptly gave the signal, a very brief and sharp whistle, something any guard could have easily mistaken for a figment of their imagination.

Within seconds, both units stopped in the middle of a small patch of forest. Instantly soldiers squatted, caught their breath, leaned against trees. A three minutes break every two kilometers. Running that far, in sports wear, was easy. But in full combat uniform, not counting the clothes itself, their gear ranged from five to fifteen kilos in weight.

Erwin, who didn't really mind the rules too much, procured a small flash from under her uniform and gave herself a warm up by taking a sip from it. It burned in her throat and sizzled in her head, a fire lighting in her stomach, warming her cold body. This was the final break and she didn't want to be sluggish when the mission started for real. “Yukari, want some?” The flask was something she had smuggled with her belongings into the contest – remembering the match against Pravda and how cold it had been. Also because she thought the real Rommel would have had something like that on his person at all times.

Yukari would have never agreed to drinking alcohol on a mission under normal circumstances but she felt the cold actually negatively impact her ability to move. “Only this time.” Taking a sip from the flask, Yukari nearly coughed it back up. She detested the taste and wasn't too fond on alcohol to begin with. Too much and it made her babble. Social drinking was a big thing in Japan, and Yukari knew that especially among soldiers a stiff drink was valued. And if she couldn't make a career out of tankery, being a soldier was the next best bet.

Miho herself sat by the roots of a tree that had pierced back up through the ground. _I would eat a cicada to have a hot shower right now._ Alice joined her, about thirty seconds after they stopped. She was close enough, and the rain was heavy enough, that no drone could have possibly caught her whisperings. “Nervous?”

“Hm.” Miho just nodded. “You're not?”

“I am.”

“I still think it is risky for you to be in the infiltration squad.” Miho wasn't excited about the prospect of potentially having to tell Maho that Alice had been shot dead.

“Sabotage is much riskier.” Alice was glad that she was not part of that squad. Being tied down by committing sabotage was much more risky than being able to stay moving.

“I'm worried about Maho, too.”

“Why?”

“Why? I mean… she is going to raid an enemy base with the intention of wiping them out. It's dangerous.” _And I'm even more worried than I normally would be because… now we're…_ Miho's face felt hot and she quickly thought of something else. “Why aren't you worried?”

“Maho is really strong even without tanks.” Alice didn't need to say anything else. It was clear from Miho's expression that she understood how much it meant for Alice to say that.

And before they knew it, their break was up. Nekota, wearing sports glasses specifically designed for paint ball, her enormously long hair tied into a doubly bound ponytail, approached Miho, ready to report. While everyone else had taken a break, Nekota and Piyotan, who were nowadays lumped in with the volleyball team when it came to physical ability, had gone ahead to scout. “Below minimal activity. The base is situated right on a river. It should be spilling into the base, but it isn't right now.” It took a little effort but she avoided saying things such as _attack bonus_ , _sneak attack_ and _flanking modifier_.

Everyone assembled in a circle. Miho was the commanding officer but Yukari took control – Miho had briefed her on the end goals but it came down to Yukari to how to achieve those. “Everyone from decoy and cover keep your radio channels open. Decoy, you're on standby a quarter click out of the enemy base. Nekota, how many guards do they have posted?” Yukari understood field tactics pretty well. She was not a genius at tactics but she knew well how to execute the plan Miho had made and if things went south, she was decent at thinking quick on her feet, too.

Erwin translated everything she said for the German girls, in case a drone was nearby and picking up their audio. Some rules were best obeyed while others could be bent or dodged.

“None.”

“Decoy, you're moving up to fifty meters out. If the signal is giving, dash in and break the first defensive line to cause chaos.” Decoy was almost entirely from Kuromorimine, with the exception of Yukari herself. “Cover, the moment sabotage or infiltration contacts you on coms, start providing cover fire. Do we have anyone with thermal?”

There was a moment of confusion and Yukari realized they probably didn't know what she meant. “Doe any of the snipers have thermal detection equipment instead of night vision?”

“I do.” Akebi raised her hand. She was the only sniper from Ooarai. A glance towards Piyotan and the trained otaku smiled at her. The thermal spotter had come from her.

“Keep on thermal at all time.” Yukari didn't feel out of place, giving orders. She was essentially enforcing Miho's will and tactics and she had unconditional trust in her commander. “Sabotage, stay out of sight. Focus on the heaviest tanks you can find but prioritize staying undiscovered. Remember, the goal is for decoy and cover to be redundancies and stay that way.”

The four groups were distinct. Miho herself lead the sabotage team, deciding on the fly which tanks to focus on. Hoshino, Nakajima and Suzuki as well as one mechanic from Kuromori, made up the remainder of her team. The decoys consisted entirely of top soldiers from Ooarai. Yukari, Erwin, Nekota, Piyotan and Shinobu. Cover was provided by Akebi and four girls from Kuromorimine. The infiltration team was led by Alice and consisted otherwise entirely of Kuromorimine soldiers as well.

“Go.” There was no ceremony to Yukari's order. Saying the word and waving her hand in the direction of the base half a click out, the four groups started to move.

Hunched over, Cover was the first group to stop, taking refuge by a rock formation, pulling out their sniper rifles and surveying the base past the tanks and the tents. “No movement.” Akebi reported over the Ooarai coms. She then ordered the other four to observe and report. “Beobachten und bericht erstatten.” She had memorized this specific line earlier, saying it in her head again and again on the way here. The four Kuromori girls smirked a little and one of them whispered to Akebi. _Your accent is terrible_.

Decoy was the second to stop, hiding in tall grass, visibility further reduced by the dark clouds and the rain. Yukari hoped it wouldn't come to an all-out fire fight, but she was expecting it to happen. The enemy base was shaped like a half circle, due to the river. “Nekota, Piyotan, north. Erwin, Shinobu, south. I'll handle the center piece by myself. Don't get pinned down, retreat or switch sides as necessary.”

Sabotage and infiltration approached the base from different directions. Alice decided that trying to cross the river was far too dangerous in this weather, so they split into two, Alice leading two and two third years on their own, approaching from north and south simultaneously. Sabotage went straight for the enemy line, moving slowly and carefully to avoid being spotted by anyone that could be out and about for any reason.

Approaching the first tank – using tanks as a defensive line was a universally adopted tactic for base building in the war – Miho raised her hand and the five of them stopped dead. They were right in front of a 7TPjw, a polish light tank, built prior to world war two. But Miho didn't even consider it. A tank of that size and armament was not a priority target.

_Bonple High School. They just recently acquired tanks from Saunders, Gloriana, Pravda and Kuromorimine after a collective effort by the student body to raise money over the course of several months. Those tanks should be our main concern._ Miho signaled the others to wait and slipped past the tent. The inside of the base felt almost deserted. There were lights on everywhere, inside the tents, and Miho could understood why. No sane person wanted to go outside in this rain. 

The base had two layers, much like the bigger schools. But since the base was only half a circle, the number of tanks was far less. Miho advanced just beyond the first line, on her own, peering up and down the ring, spotting the first target. One M4A2 Sherman from Saunders.

Making their way over there, outside the defensive line, Miho really started to freeze. No clothing in the world could fully protect against this level of rain. Her feet one of the few things that weren't ice cold at this point. Among the sabotage unit, Miho was the only one armed with an actual weapon – although in many circumstances, the tools the other saboteurs carried, wrenches, hammers and a few other things, were much more deadly. Although they were absolutely not allowed to use any of that as a weapon.

Miho had no illusions about the nature of this mission – it would be tough, tense and boring at the same time to stand guard for the saboteurs. Ten minutes passed and the saboteurs worked as quietly as they could, introducing fatal faults into the tank's maintenance and outright removing small but highly important parts and pocketing them. There was no alarm, which meant Alice's team had not been spotted yet. Miho, looking left and right constantly, peering into the dark, murky weather as hard as she could, passed the time by thinking about Maho. That kiss they had shared in a hurry – she wanted more than that. But she still didn't feel ready for that. With a relationship as potentially volatile as she was having with Maho – because no matter how accepting the world was becoming, sisters in love and engaged in lewd activities was over the line for almost any culture – she didn't want to run head-on into unnecessary risks.

Recalling the divine feeling of Maho's legs, Miho thought about the rest of her sister's body. After seeing how trained her legs were, Miho felt her heart beat like crazy when she thought about her stomach and butt. She wasn't particularly focused on breasts, a stark contrast from the rest of her team, but if they were Maho's she still wanted to fondle them as much as she- Miho's alarm went off when someone emerged from a tent near her.

Stepping aside, Miho hid behind the tracks of the tank, the Sherman, and the mechanics just dropped their tools, not too hasty to make sure that metal didn't hit metal, and did the same, pressing themselves against the cold, wet metal of the vehicle.

Miho signaled them to finish sabotage quickly. Staying too long in one place was bound to get them discovered at some point. _I hope Maho is doing okay_.

“{Continue firing! Suppress their flanking attempts!}” Maho's forceful shouting pierced through the rain, paint bullets soaring right over her head. Taking cover behind a demolished TAs tank, her own girls had hijacked one of the T.3 and started firing on the other tanks to prevent the enemy forces from taking shelter there. The base camp was covered in craters and corpses of Romanian soldiers. Maho had one dead and four wounded, two of the wounded heavily so. A number of surviving enemy forces had barricaded themselves between supply boxes, creating an emergency make shift fort. The others were being chased from cover to cover by the superior aim, endurance and discipline of the Kuromorimine forces that were absolutely relentless.

Maho noticed a pattern in how often they had to reload or stopped firing. Two soldiers were by her side, one of them Erika. “{On mein kommando.}” Maho whistled sharp, twice, then let two seconds pass and whistled again, twice. There was too much chaos going on to rely on just coms. Everyone was covered in mud, grass and various types of leafs. Firing over her cover, holding her assault rifle, a HK416, with one hand, Maho was glad that she had trained so hard. The gun weighted three kilos, which was really straining her wrist. And then, the fire from the Romanians ended again. Maho didn't lose a second. “{Jetzt. Go!}”

Jumping out of cover, Maho, Erika and one more Kuromorimine soldier stormed ahead, their combat boots splashing water and mod by their sides, the three of them as imposing as a lynch mob. At the same time, everyone else briefly opened fire on the barricade, ignoring the fleeing and cover seeking Romanian's out and about. Unable to return fire for several seconds, the barricaded Romanians had their small fortress broken apart when Maho and Erika tackled the constructions, toppling over the wall of boxes and burying numerous girls beneath. “{Feuer!}” Holding her assault rifle into one of the gaps, Maho indiscriminately fired on the trapped soldiers until her clip was empty. The soldier that had joined her, not Erika, threw a spare magazine over to her and the execution, the massacre, continued. Maho had no concept of mercy when it came to being in actual combat.

Bullets flew past her arms, her legs, her head, all missing her because she was positioned right against the toppled boxes, using them as a shield. Maho was not done with them just yet. “{Erika, Schild!}”

While Maho and her assist continued to suppress any stragglers from climbing out beneath the corpses with suppressive fire, Erika ran off, grabbed one of the dead Romanian's and dragged her through the mod, pulling her up and holding her like a lifeless human shield. Back in positions, Maho and her assist applied enough force from the inside to topple the other side of the fort, this time outwards. Revealing numerous living soldiers below the contents of spilled boxes and three corpses, they immediately started firing at the imposing figure right in front of them. And their paint bullets pelted the already confirmed dead Romanian soldier that Erika used as a shield. Firing, without regarding for where she hit them, Erika killed four of the bunched in soldiers in an instant, quelling the resistance in the heart of the fort.

But being out in the open and holding another girl came at a cost – her mobility was nearly zero. One Romanian, with what had to be a rifle without any ammo left, raced towards Erika from her behind, aiming to knock her out flat, to cut deep into the offensive power of the German forces.

Fifty meters away, covered in mud and freezing, was Koume, a tremendously loud clicking sound as she emptied the chamber of her G28, a model MR308 sniper rifle weighting just over four kilos. The impact against her shoulder was rendered null by her posture and the ground support. The attacking soldier behind Erika dropped dead like her head had been blown off.

She had four shots left. Scanning the surroundings, watching the back of her commander and Erika, Koume fired again, landing a direct hit on the shoulder of a hiding combatant. Each shot was accompanied by a loud bang from the 508mm long barrel. It was almost certainly overkill to fire on humans with this rifle, even though it was a long way short of using something like the G82.

Two bullets hit the ground dangerously close to her and she felt adrenaline rush through her body. Scoping around to see the shooter, Koume rolled over when the next two shots were even closer, almost hitting her. Rolling **with** her gun, something she had trained for, was difficult and exhausting. Hiding between a tree, the next shots hit the wood. _That would have been my head_. “{Kommandeur, feindlicher sniper. Unable to move or return fire.}” Koume was one of the few people that had a direct line to Maho over short range coms. A message came back immediately, asking for approximate target locations and Koume ran the trajectories and numbers in her head to the best of her ability.

Maho, backed up by Erika, who now resorted to using a P12, a handgun, to keep the last remnants of their enemies out of Maho's way. The Romanian sniper was located by Maho through a bit of luck and estimating where a sniper could possibly fire from in all this chaos. Standing over the blonde girl, who surrendered with her arms up, no longer touching the sniper rifle, Maho didn't hesitate to shoot her in the head. “{Status bericht!}” Maho communicated on open channel, a one-way lane for orders from above.

Status reports came in by squad leaders and Maho issued her next orders. “{Take alles we can carry. Don't bother with the panzers, they're wertlos to us. Squad vier, round up the survivors. Execute alle once everyone else has finished operations.}” Maho stood over the sniper that had fired on Koume and shot her in the back for good measure. She was a caring person, in her normal life. But out here, she knew that setting an example, that burning them to the ground, would make other schools so much more afraid of them. And fear was a powerful deterrent.

_Two hours since Miho left. I hope things are going alright for her. I am going to wipe out the Polish by myself if they hurt her._ Maho holstered her sidearm. “{Kommandeur an alle squads. Take as much munition as you can carry. Check alle waffen for non-depleted magazines. Die Romanier won't be needing them anymore.}”

“{You were fearless out there.}” Erika complimented Miho as the two of them walked through the completely wrecked camp of the Romanians. They had left only three girls alive and those three were looking at a firing squad the second they had looted everything of value. “{I was worried that you would be too defensive because you don't want to worry Miho.}”

“{Don't talk about Miho when we're on a mission.}” Maho made sure that nobody was around to hear her say the next thing. “{I'm really grateful to you for pushing us together, but I want to keep it a secret.}”

_I should have pushed as hard for your affection when I had the chance._ Erika was still bitter that Maho would choose her own sister instead of someone that was always by her side. “{Did we lose anyone from Ooarai?}” A group of six, a detachment from Ooarai, had joined the assault on Miho's orders, supplying cover fire and retrieval of the injured. 

Maho made the call and got her reply almost immediately. “{One has been shot but she'll live. A hit to the shoulder, point blank range. Had to go right through.}” Maho was intensely calm despite the carnage all around her – the very poster child of the Nishizumi style. Crushing an enemy with precision, without mercy and extreme prejudice embodied the _emotions are useless_ approach that Maho's mother taught.

“{Miho will be erleichtert that they're okay.}” 

“{Ich hoffe so.}”

Miho, in the meantime, couldn't hear a thing but a singular powerful beep, a ringing noise that wasn't going to let up. Shouting into her coms, because it was hard to figure out how loud exactly she was saying anything when she couldn't hear a thing, Miho ordered an organized retreat.

Suzuki was carrying Nakajima on her back, the latter knocked out by the very same thing that left all of them with ringing eardrums. The camp of Bonple High was in a state of absolute chaos. They had attempted to fire on the decoy squad with the Hetzer they had bought from Kuromorimine. Hoshino and the mechanic from Kuromori had rigged that tank to short out when it was being fired – a little too well. Instead of just shorting out, the barrel exploding with the shell in it, creating a bang so loud that was like a stun grenade went off in everyone's face. The cover squad was doing their best to keep everyone safe. The Hetzer had burst into flames, and while the crew was safe, the entire base was now mobilized. Tanks were starting up, at least those that hadn't been messed with, and infnatry was combing the surrounding area.

Miho had no idea how this had even started, what had alerted everyone to their presence. But all of a sudden, the Polish had started shouting aggressively and they came running out of their tents. Not a single person of the twenty girls unit understood a single word of Polish so they had no idea what was going on. Miho felt bullets fly by, first a few, then more. “Down!”

The Sabotage squad just threw themselves into the mud. They obeyed Miho's order unconditionally. Miho could barely register who it was that sprinted past her, towards the hail of bullets. She heard the Polish shout and seconds later an explosion went off.

“Move!” Yukari bellowed and threw a second grenade, pulling the pin with her teeth with firing into the general direction of the base with her minebea 9mm, a feat that was quite impressive to look at. “Nekota, get Erwin out of here!” Yukari was yelling on open coms. It didn't matter if the enemy could hear her. Names didn't mean anything and it was obvious that they were retreating.

Right after the second hand grenade went off, Yukari holstered her machine pistol and instead pulled a much, much larger weapon from her back – something she had purchased herself with money from part-time construction jobs.

The Polish freaked when a storm of bullets came hurling their way. They could not even think about taking cover. Two of them were pelted in the first volley, taking eight and four hits respectively, dropping dead on the spot. A tent that was in the way of the bullets was destroyed and another Polish soldier, brave enough to try and aim at the shooter, was hit ten times before she could hit the ground.

Taking crude aim with her Sumitomo Type 62, a ten kilo heavy machine gun capable of firing 650 rounds per minute, or RPM, with a maximum firing range of 1000 meters. Yukari was not so much providing cover fire as she was covering the Polish with fire. _This was worth working all those hard hours after practice._ Yukari had stopped collecting all sorts of military goods for the sole purpose of getting this gun and a lot of ammo. Carrying it all this way had been exhausting, even for her, but having experience as a gunner, prior to Miho joining Ooarai, now came in handy.

One of the Polish tanks suddenly drove out of formation, took a sharp turn and blazed a trail of destruction straight through the camp, firing twice on other tanks before it drove right into the river. There was confusion on both sides until Miho received a message and gave new orders. “Infiltration is out! Everyone full treat!”

Yukari, looking at the remainder of her ammo belt, fired for a few more seconds, in bursts, before a very short message from Akebi came in. _Move, now!_

Packing up her machine gun in a hurry, throwing the ammo belt over her shoulder, Yukari dashed for it, ignoring the stinging pain in her legs that came from incorrectly carrying the weapon. Bonple High's base camp was a disaster. Their Hetzer had an exploded barrel, their Sherman had flipped over because it lost half of it's tracks. Over ten Polish soldiers were confirmed dead, many more wounded.

Miho didn't give the order to ease up on the retreat until they were two clicks out, a safe distance and between trees. “Report on wounded and dead.” Miho was out of breath and ammo. She had personally shot a soldier that discovered them in the head. It was the first person she had ever killed. Her hands were so calm that it made her nervous. She had expected something – trembling, nausea, or even panic. But it was just her duty, her job.

“Four wounded. No casualties.” Shinobu reported back about a minute later. “Erwin took a shot to her right leg but it looks like she avoided the worst. The other injuries are from the Kuromori team and I am waiting for Erwin to translate.” Shinobu, the most calm and collected of the ex-volleyball team, still felt the adrenaline pumping through her. Having a match in tanks was exciting already, but this was much more dangerous and much more about personal ability than a team effort. There was value in that, too.

“Better than I expected after the situation escalated like that. What would Kay call it? FUBAR?” Miho tried her best to be smug about it, but the mission had definitely not succeeded in the way that she had aimed for.

Miho's attention was captured by a ruckus in the back. _In-fighting? Now? I expected better from-_ Miho's thoughts ground to a halt when she saw what that ruckus was about. A girl in full military uniform, inclusive insignia indicating her high rank – long blonde hair that looked like it had been a braid prior to being in an altercation – was struggling to get free, growling and grunting through her cloth gag. Before the Ooarai commander could take control, Alice did.

Taking out her pistole 12, Alice put the barrel right under the girl's chin. “{Stop struggling or Bonple loses their commander.}” There was nothing but cold professionalism in Alice's voice. The Shimada style wasn't big on mercy either. And because the prisoner of war could see that Alice was not bluffing, she stopped struggling. “{Shoot both her legs if she acts up again.}”

“She understands German?” Miho was surprised but then discarded that thought. _If someone held a handgun to my head and said anything to me after I made a ruckus, I'd figure out what she means, too, even if I don't speak the language_. Finding Erwin, who was now being carried by Yukari, who had handed over her machine gun to Nekota, Miho needed her services. “Can you still translate?”

“There's no _can_ , only _have to_.” Erwin really got into character when it came to it.

“Who is your prisoner?” Miho needed to talk with Alice. And considering the hell they had raised, she was perfectly sure that a drone had to be nearby.

“{Bonple High Hauptkommandant, Jajka something.}” Alice holstered her gun. “{She happened across us while we were searching through deployment orders.}”

“So you **kidnapped** her?”

“{Bonple is not as poor as we assumed. We will ransom her for fuel and food. They can starve themselves or fight without their kommandeur.}” Alice's Shimada style was focused on disruption and guerilla warfare. In a way, she was destined for the infiltration squad or as a spy.

“Commander. We need to move.” Yukari didn't want to stick around for the Polish to come chasing after them.

“Right.” Miho gave the order, and Alice repeated it without needing a translation.

=== Eisenkreuz Imouto ===

The two sister's sat together on Miho's field bed, the older one rubbing Miho's hair dry with a white towel. “I'm glad you're okay.” Leaving the towel on her head, Maho hugged her little sister from behind. “I heard the situation went a little south.”

“I never thought infantry matches could get so messy. I feel like I failed as a commander.”

“Nobody died, you brought back a really valuable prisoner and Bonple probably won't be thinking about attacking anyone for a while. That is more than most people could have accomplished.”

“You sound proud.” Miho coughed when Maho hugged her a little too forceful. “You **are** proud.” She still managed to smile and feel better, despite her waist hurting a little now. “But I'm blessed with capable people all around me. And a loving sister.”

“Did Alice behave out there?”

“She's basically our equal. I didn't question her decisions and she was very professional. She reminds me a little of you, actually.”

“I'm much taller and tougher than her.”

“And you have much better… proportions.” Miho leaned back so far that her head rested on Maho's breasts. “They're nice and soft but not too soft and not too big.”

“My little sister the perverted girl.” Maho kept her arms around Miho's waist, sliding her hands under her sister's uniform. “I guess that makes it okay if I am a little perverted, too.”

Miho faked shock. “You have a fetish?”

“A little sister fetish.”

“So if mom had a third daughter...”

“A Miho fetish!”

“So every girl out there that's called Miho-”

Maho pinched Miho's flat stomach. “Little sisters shouldn't try to tease their older sisters.”

“Only a little sister is allowed to do that.” Miho felt comfortable joking around with Maho and hugging like this, but she still felt anxious when she thought about more. “We can… sleep together tonight. Just together! Not… with each other.”

Maho rubbed her nose in anticipation of getting a nosebleed before she remembered that stuff like that didn't happen to real people. “It's already eight. How much later is _tonight_?”

“I really want to go to sleep _now…_ or at least to bed.” Miho let out a huge sigh. “But Erika and Yukari are going to kick us out of bed. We still need to deal with the aftermath of your raid and my… I need to come up with a classification.”

“Sometimes the normal soldiers have it better than us.” Maho wasn't one to shun her duties, but she really wanted to spend time with Miho **now** and not later.

“Our deal still stands.” Miho thought she could make a little fun of her sister.

“What deal?”

“Whoever finishes work first warms the tent. Or the sleeping bag.” Miho looked down and to the side. “I am not sleeping on this frail thing with you.”

“Anything is comfortable if I share it with you.”

“That's because you're tough like nails, sis.” Miho continued to tease Maho, completely playfully.

“You think so? You didn't look so tired when you came back, so aren't you just as tough?”

“I could fall asleep like this right now.” Miho closed her eyes and immediately started to fake snore.

“Your sleeping face is very cute, too,” Maho whispered to herself.

“I heard that,” Miho smirked as she said so. Groaning and moaning as she sat back up, Miho really felt sluggish now. “If we could at least have a hot bath...”

“Once the rain stops we can use the excess heat of the engines or maybe burn some wood. There are a lot of extra trees.”

“There is no way we can get away with bathing together.”

“That reminds me that mother used to bathe with us until we were in junior high.”

_Maho… can you not make me think of mom when I fantasize about you in the bath?_ Miho wished she had the guts to say something like that out loud, but it wasn't in her to be that brave.

“Miho?” Yukari'a voice came from outside, where the still incessant rain was still coming down.

Jumping up, Miho replied. “I'll be right there.” Flinging around, Miho repeated her earlier act of braveness and kissed her sister – with Yukari right outside to boot. “I still like to hug things in bed.” With those words, that promise, Miho grabbed her raincoat and stepped out into the rain. Maho, still inside the tent, heard them speak in Japanese but she couldn't quite register what they were saying. She was excited for tonight.

=== Panzer Halt ===


	3. Chapter 3

Maho pried one eye open, seeing only the familiar light brown hair that she would recognize out of a mob of hundreds. It was a fine mess, a mess she herself had caused. Nothing big had happened the night before. At least not in the way that it would look like to anyone that were to burst into the tent.

_The rain is gone_ , Maho thought and felt a little disappointed. Now she couldn't use it as an excuse to stay in her tent with Miho. But as disappointed as she was, those feelings couldn't ruin her morning, not with her adorable and perfect little sister by her side. And she was more than just **by** her side. Miho's left arm was resting just below Maho's breasts, right on her skin, beneath her shirt. Her left leg between Maho's. The unfamiliar warmth of another body so close to her own, of skin touching and the captivating smell of the girl she loved.

Just spending the night next to Miho had nearly cost her the night – it had been hard to fall asleep while her heart was beating like crazy. And the temptations had been so great. To just touch and grope any part of Miho as she was asleep. But she persevered, held her lust inside. “Miho...”

“Hm… no good morning kiss?” Miho rubbed Maho's stomach, still keeping her eyes closed. “We got to sleep so late… it can't be morning already...”

Maho reached for a small and robust alarm clock. _7:45 AM. The rain is gone, but everything is bound to be still really wet, so we can use that as an excuse_. “We can stay like this for a little longer.”

“Five minutes?” Miho turned a little more to the side, putting a little pressure on her sister.

“More than that.” Maho moved a few strands of her own hair out of the way that had to be tickling Miho's face. “But the rain is gone, finally.”

“I'm glad.” Opening her eyes, Miho yawned. “Good morning sis.”

Maho chuckled. “Good morning, Miho. I didn't know you were so clingy in the mornings.”

“Only when I wake up next to girls that are my older sister.” Closing her eyes again and cuddling up with her sister, Miho didn't want to be a commander just yet. For just a little while longer, she wanted to be the little sister and nobody else.

“Where did you learn to sweet talk like that? Who corrupted my innocent Miho?” Flat on her back, Maho yawned loudly by herself, feeling zero motivation to get up.

“It's strange… I imagined so many times what it would feel like to be like this with you. Now that we're here… it's nothing like that imagined.” Miho just ignored her sister's funny comments. She wasn't in the mood to joke around right now.

“You imagine lewd things.” Maho could tell that she was right because for a few seconds, Miho tensed up, putting pressure on her chest and her legs. “You are not old enough for such thoughts, Miho.”

“Says my sister who is getting really excite to feel my breasts against her sides.” Miho pushed a little stronger. “You like them.” Continuing what she was doing, Miho felt Maho get either embarrassed or uncomfortable, and she was betting it was the former. “I thought I'd be way more nervous… but it's like tankery. The biggest hurdle is getting in and not being afraid.”

“We have to thank Erika. Without her, I would have thought every big and little hint was just my imagination.” Maho moved her neck and it made a cracking noise. “I am not used to sleeping like this.”

“When did my sis become so whiny?” Miho tore herself away from her sister, exhaled slowly and then groaned with a high pitched sound as she stretched. “I just want to stay here… but I'll feel super guilty.”

“The guilt will make you work harder later.” Maho reached up, grabbing her little sister by her shoulders and pulled her back down. “I was so excited last night I barely slept.”

“Pervert.” Miho had built up a lot of confidence in herself over the course of the last year and being at Ooarai. A good chunk of it came from overseeing the training for the war, too. All that confidence came in handy when dealing with her sister and not thinking too much about feeling insecure or that she was treading dangerous ground if anyone found out about it. “Maho… what do you like?”

“I don't really know what you mean.” Maho twitched strongly when Miho bit her ear.

“Do you like gentle or rough?” Still nibbling on Maho's left ear, Miho felt embarrassed doing all of this. But if she let embarrassment stop her, she would never get anywhere.

“Ooarai is a fearsome place. To have turned my innocent Miho into such a lewd girl. I must speak to mother about having you transfer back to Kuromorimine.” While Maho thought she was being funny by being facetious, it had the opposite effect on her sister. A grim look was on her face when she pushed herself, looking at Maho's face.

“Please don't joke about that. Ooarai is my home now.” 

“Miho, I was only kidding… I wouldn't do something like that.” Reaching for her little sister's face, Maho was shut down when Miho started to pout.

“It's not funny.” And upon seeing that Maho looked really dejected, Miho deemed that sufficient punishment and stopped. “Sis… do you wanna… try kissing?”

“Already?”

“What do you mean already?!” Lying back down next to Maho, Miho thought her own embarrassment was the least of her problems now. “Normally a couple kisses when they become a couple.”

“Didn't you want to take things slow?”Turning sideways so she could face Miho, Maho very gradually and slowly turned more and more red just looking at Miho's face that up close.

“That was before I realized how little time we would have alone.” _And because after spending the next night to you… I'm kind of feeling hot on the inside. I don't believe you aren't feeling it too. And kissing after being together for a whole day is slower than slow. I need to push forward… if I stop and just leave things be I know it'll take me forever to make up my mind again._

“My sister the seductress.” Leaning forward, Maho just barely managed to kiss Miho on the forehead without having to get up.

“Geez, will you take this seriously?” Miho got a little closer, so much that she could feel Maho breathing on her skin. “That's not what I meant.”

Both sisters looked at each other, their head telling them to look away but their hearts stopping that from happening. Miho moved in a little bit, briefly puckering her lips only to hesitate and stop. Maho did so as well, both of them repeating that same pattern for nearly a minute before Maho then grabbed her sister's left hand inside the sleeping bag and placed it firmly on her breasts before she pushed forward, the two of them meeting like that for the first time.

Eyes closed in high tension, their minds and hearts erupted in fireworks, the slightly dry but still soft sensation of each other's lips in the morning. Miho's lips were a little rough from staying up so late and talking so much – Maho's were much hotter than her sisters, the heat of the moment rising to her face. Both of them were frozen like this, barely but definitely kissing.

Miho felt Maho's heartbeat hammer through her chest, like a jackhammer and it broke the spell that kept them confined. She had never kissed anyone so she had nothing to go on. Slowly backing away just the tiniest of spaces, Miho pushed her lips against Maho's again, recalling the countless hours in bed alone when she had pretended her hand was Maho's mouth.

The same was true for the older sister and gradually the two of them turned a meeting of mouths into a proper kiss, wetting each other's skin, all the way to the corner of their mouths. Maho reached forward in her mind, her tongue just lightly touching Miho's lips and immediately retreating because her bravery crumbled before the excitement and fear that Miho might pull away if she dared to go forward and continue.

But Miho welcomed the attempt, her own tongue slipped through the nearly closed lips of her sister and lover. She didn't dare to open her eyes, to look at Maho's face, not this time. But her own heart tried to compete with Maho's and overtake it, beating so hard that Miho felt like she was shaking. A tiny trickle of Maho's saliva mixed with her own ran down her chin as the kiss grew more intense and Miho finally threw out caution and jumped into the midst of things, strongly pushed Maho on her back and climbing on top of her, all without breaking the kiss that grew more intense and more sloppy by the moment. Their tent was filled with inappropriate noises, wet smacks and greedy gasping.

Maho was the first to feel dizzy but refused to give up on this special treat. Miho on the other hand finally broke away when she felt so light headed that it was almost making her feel sick. Neither of them had taken care to breathe, in fear of inappropriately snorting or breathing too heavily through their nose while they were so close together. Gasping and panting, Miho rose up and sat on Maho's lap, the top of the sleeping bag pushed back and off her shoulders. Her chest visibly rose and fell with each breath. Her lust was telling her to continue, to go even further, but Miho was not that weak willed.

Looking away and slowly getting off of her sister, Miho turned red and redder until she had to hide her face behind her hands. Maho was less affected but still couldn't get a word out. One moment the two of them had been to embarrassed to kiss, the next they were slobbering all over each other. And now they were back to being embarrassed, the heat of the moment being over.

“Miho, was that… your first kiss?” Maho sat up as well but faced in a different direction, fixating on the intricate placement of all the paperwork inside her tent. _That stack is completely messy. I need to smooth it out_. Something, anything, to keep her mind occupied and not spend the next thirty minutes licking her own lips.

“Hm.” She just nodded and did something very similar to her sister – staring at the clothes on the floor of the tent to get her mind out of the gutter. _I wonder if I still look good in Kuromorimine's uniform._ Both of them were just wearing underwear and an undershirt above said underwear right now.

Spending more than two minutes like that, Maho recovered first. “I prefer a gentle little sister.” Leaning back to back with Miho, she enjoyed the warm feeling of Miho's skin on her own shoulders and back. “There's… a few other things I like.” Talking about her fantasies and sexual preferences with her sister was among the most weird things that Maho had recollection of ever doing. And definitely the most embarrassing. But it was her precious little sister that asked her, so she had to tell her.

Miho's face was about to melt off when she thought of what Maho was going to tell her. “A-Actually, never mind!” Miho didn't think she could take it. If Maho told her what sort of _play_ she liked, she had to tell her too – about her leg fetish. And the other thing.

_She's so cute that I am going to die from too much exposure._ “Do you want to get breakfast?” After getting no reply for about six seconds, Maho tapped her sister's shoulder. “Miho.”

“Fueh?!” Miho was still in full embarrassment control mode but calmed down significantly after Maho repeated question. “Hm. I haven't had real breakfast in a few days.”

The two of them took their time getting dressed. “Do you miss the Kuromorimine uniform?” Maho had noticed a rather innocent look that her sister repeatedly gave her. She wasn't looking at **her** but at what she was wearing.

“I did spend more than a year there. So… I do miss it a little.” Miho finished dressing and was glad that the rain was finally done. Not only made it tankery battles impossible, it was also bad for morale. “What is Kuromorimine going to do without you?”

“They were fine even without a Nishizumi leading them for well over a decade.” Maho was not worried about that at all. “Now that you brought it up… I wonder how things were in mother's generation.”

“She really puts a lot of pressure on you. You bring her up a lot.” Tying her boots, Miho felt regret that she hadn't pushed ahead even further with Maho. Who knew if they would be this lucky in the evening or the next morning?

“She isn't a bad person. She's just really stubborn and set in her ways.” Maho rolled up the sleeping bag and put it away. She didn't care about airing it out. As far as she was concerned, that thing could smell like Miho from one end to another and it would only improve everything about it.

“I know. But we can never tell her about this.”

“She might freeze and never move again because it would be too much for her to understand.”

“You sometimes say really mean things.”

“That's not… how I meant it.” Maho was not someone who could always communicate what she felt without trouble.

Miho left the tent ahead of her sister and was immediately robbed of her vision. Because of the base's location, the fog was impossibly dense, much more so still than anywhere else. She could barely see her hand in front of her face. “I guess we will not be going anywhere today. Or at the very least, not with our tanks.” _Navigating in the rain would have been one thing… never mind the issues with the ground and traction, but this fog? You could be five meters away from a tank, and even though you could tear the tracks, you couldn't see it._

Maho joined her, suffering from the same sudden loss of vision. It was difficult to even just see Miho right next to her. “The fog must be coming down from the hills and the cliff, accumulating in this almost valley like spot.” Maho whispered to her sister, cautious about being picked up by any drones. But the base was eerily quiet now. _With this much fog, nobody will be able to spot us, much less attack us._ “This will give us time.”

Miho hadn't spent any thought on it until now but she remembered. They had a prisoner. The commander of Bonple, the Polish army. She had just shouted what everyone thought to be Polish obscenities when she regained consciousness. Miho had been against the _measures_ that Maho had taken, but Maho and Alice outvoted her two to three and in the end, Miho didn't have much of a better idea.

“Do you think she will talk now?” Miho whispered back just as softly as Maho talked to her. Rules were rules, and while it was extremely unlikely to be heard inside the tent, the outside was a different matter altogether.

“If she doesn't, we'll try to ransom her. If that doesn't work, shoot her.” Maho was a different person when it came to her job as Kuromorimine's commander. The nice and gentle girl that Miho knew put her hands together and turned away while a much darker, grittier Maho took over. 

Seeing her like that also tugged at a switch inside of Miho. A switch to a cage, holding in something she was afraid to let out, lest she can't put it away again. Something that had been taught to her from before she could remember clear, a way of life she had abandoned. _Victory._ It howled, in the back of her head. Seeing Alice in combat and being around Maho in her role as commander… she understood that the battlefield was no place to hesitate, to be kind. She didn't want to be just like them, but she also understood that if she didn't put away part of herself like Maho did, the chances of Ooarai winning the war, or lasting to the very end, were much slimmer than if she did what was required of her.

Both of them heard footsteps approaching and moved to stand just a little bit further apart. A shadow appeared in the fog and then it took form. Sheska saluted both of them. “{Guten morgen commander. Ooarai's commander.}” The brief salute over with, Sheska immediately went to business. “{As you can see, the fog is preventing us from functioning properly. There were various minuscule accidents early in the morning with people colliding and walking into crates and tents. No message from the unified channel has arrived yet, so it appears the war will not be temporarily halted because of bad weather.}”

“{After that heavy regenfall, there is no way they will halt it because of nebel.}” Maho could see that much herself. “{What else?}”

“{Because of these conditions, we're unable to deploy. It is unmöglich to maintain any kind of formation like this.}”

“{Matters unrelated to the fog?}”

“{The prisoner is in bad shape. We found someone that speaks a little Polish to try and communicate with her once you give the order.}”

“{Anything else?}”

“{During the night, a number of soldiers from Bonple that tracked us were shot dead by our guards. Four confirmed dead, two heavily wounded and two more suspected of being wounded.}”

_Was Miho sloppy during her retreat? That sounds unlikely… so how did they find us? Is it related to the midnight attack on the day of Miho's arrival?_ “{Has the prisoner been moved?}”

“{No.}” Sheska showed no sign of being uncomfortable with their treatment of their prisoner of war. The rules allowed for some rather creative ways to deal with them.

“{Sheska, how did you navigate this fog?}”

“{Slowly.}”

Miho had been standing next to Maho without being able to understand much. She knew what _Kriegsgefangener_ meant – a prisoner of war. That had to be Jajka, Bonple's general commander.

Sheska was ordered to take Maho to where they kept Jajka. “{Miho. Warte hier.}” Telling her sister to wait, Maho was surprised when she just shook her head and stepped forward, a determine look in her eyes. _I was wondering how much it would take for the Nishizumi inside of her to take over_.

It took them nearly ten minutes to make it to where the prisoner was kept despite it being no more than about hundred meters. Even Sheska got lost once. A number of soldiers stood in the fog with, striking metal cups and other apparel to create noise. It was the only way to navigate around the base.

Jajka was in truly bad condition and it had taken away all of her bite. Soaked, dirty, hungry and exhausted from being forced to march with the other soldiers, she had been chained to a busted engine from one of the tanks. There was nowhere for her to go – at most she could have gone about a meter away from it. And the small height of the engine made it not provide any cover against the rain. And she had spent the entire night out in the open. All her requests to go to the toilet had been ignored – just like anything else she had shouted. The only upside to being stuck in the pouring rain was that it washed away the humiliation of peeing herself.

She was cold and felt like shit. And when she heard other people approaching, she could not even give enough of a shit to open her mouth. _Fuck… of all the people to capture me it had to be the Germans._ Jajka really lamented her lack of luck. She believed Bonple to be strong, to be powerful. And just like that, her dream of winning the war had been destroyed. It was pure humiliation. She had screamed, shouted and vented her anger for hours without anyone caring to listen. It gave the disappointment time to sink it. What also sank in was the realization that she was definitely not going to walk away from this. Not alive.

Three people stood before her and she recognized two of them. _Kuromorimine's Iron Maiden and Ooarai's Lady Sun Tzu._ She knew them well from seeing their matches and from hearsay. She wasn't really worried about the girl from Ooarai, but her sister… she was not called the Iron Maiden because she was such a tough nut or anything, but because anyone caught unaware by her would die. The Iron Maiden was a means of execution and that was who Maho Nishizumi was. A cold construct with no compassion or remorse; just an executioner. Trying to spit at Maho, her dry throat didn't allow for that to happen. “[Ty ślinia nie ucieknie z tym!]” Slinging an insult at the German woman, Jajka felt anger rise through her chest when the nuzzle of an assault rifle was connecting with her forehead. Despite knowing that she wouldn't walk away from this, fear set in. Fear of imminent and irreversible death. The fear of Bonple's misfortune spiraling out of control if she was gone. The little bit of color she had on her face she lost and her breathing became shallow. Swallowing the little bit of spit she had was difficult and hurt. The insides of her mouth were hot and her tongue felt like boiling. The cold metal of the nuzzle pressed hard against her forehead and she expected the lethal shot to come at any second.

The third girl stepped away before the shot came and a different one joined them moments later. She looked nervous, panicked even. _Who can blame her? Seeing someone executed in cold blood is hard, even if you're a soldier. My girls aren't any different._

“[Informacja. Będziesz żył.]” The fourth girl, one of Maho's subordinates, told Jajka in broken Polish that if she gave them information, she would live.

“[Jakbym mogła ci zaufać.]” _How stupid do they think I am? Information?`They know where our base camp is. They wrecked it! What else do they even want?_ But deep down, she didn't want to die. She didn't want Bonple to die.

Maho whispered to the translator, still holding the assault rifle right to Jajka's head. Maho looked down on her and the pressure against Jajka's forehead made clear that she would shoot her instantly if she so much as tried to stand up in defiance. Even the proud Polish general understood that without words. Death was a universal language when threatened with it.

“[Informacje o Pravdzie]” The translator tried again. She was not confident in her ability to get much out of her and the volatile situation didn't help with her nervousness.

_Pravdzie? Pravda? We didn't even encounter Pravda._ “[Nic nie wiem.]” _If they don't want information on Bonple, I can give it to them. The more enemies they take out, the longer Bonple will be in play._

The translator didn't have to say anything for Maho to understand. She kicked the girl's ass, mud and water splashing on the Polish commander. “[Raus mit der sprache!]” Maho shouted at the woman.

“[Powiedziałem, że nic nie wiem!]” Jajka shouted back, her defiant look trying to drill a hole into the Iron Maiden from Kuromorimine.

Miho watched, feeling a little sorry for the girl. She was a good commander, capable of efficiently handling her troops. She knew their strengths and weaknesses and how to handle herself in a fight. But she could not flip a switch like her sister and become like this. But she was glad that her sister could. Someone had to, and if Maho could, she would be there for her later.

“[Amerykanie, Saunders? Brytyjczycy, Gloriana? Byle co?]” The translator girl kept trying.

Jajka cursed her luck and leered at Maho with obvious hatred in her eyes. “[Spotkaliśmy się tylko z Czechosłowacją i Włochami. Nawiązaliśmy porozumienie z Włochami.]” _Just feed them something. Whatever. The more I talk, the more distracted they will be when it comes to picking their next target. Even if I am gone, Bonple will not surrender. The longer we survive, even if it is not honorable, the more support we will garner._

“{She is saying they met only two schools. I cannot make out the first but the second is Anzio.}”

That got Maho's attention. “{Ask her about Anzio. And clear up which other army they met.}”

“[Imię pierwszej armii?]”

“[Gregor.]”

Maho didn't need **that** translated. “{Irrelevant. Ask about Anzio.}”

“[Co się stało Anzio?]” _Did I… ask that right? What happened.. Anzio I forgot the **with**_.

“[Śledziliśmy. Uciekli. Dwa zbiorniki i siedem osób brakuje.]” _I still don't understand how those damn pasta eating peasants got away from us. And to top it off, by the time we ended the search, two of our 10TP were missing. The seven girls inside were gone as well. I can only assume they got to them and we never found them._

The translator struggled to convey things to Maho, who then, finally, raised the rifle, which caused Jajka to relax for a moment. _Anzio led her around by the nose and probably made off with two tanks. Asking what kind of tanks is probably not going to work because of the language barrier. Stealing tanks… what are you planning, Anchovy?_ Maho looked to her translator. _How much more can I get out of her? Most likely not much. But we have nothing to gain from shooting her now_. “{Ask her as much as your Polish allows. Have someone make notices for you. If she appears to be feeding you misinformation, shoot her legs.}”

Maho turned on the spot and waited for Miho to look to her and no longer at their prisoner. “{Miho.}” Calling her name had the intended effect. The Ooarai commander shook off her pity and walked away. _War is cruel. Sis should be my role model._

“{You hate the way I treat prisoners Miho?}”

“I have no idea what you're say, sis.” Miho tried to look amicable as possible but she couldn't hide she was a little annoyed with the language barrier. She didn't understand anything during the interrogation either. “I need to have Erwin teach me a bit of German.”

Maho tried to listen for a drone but realized how pointless that was; they were very silent to not disrupt the war. Grabbing Miho by her hand and dragging her along, forward into the unknown, they reached the tents and Maho pulled Miho right next to one, whispering to her. “I am sorry if the interrogating upset you. But I'm doing it so you don't have to.”

“I'm not upset and I know. I kinda think you were very badass,” Miho whispered back. “What are we going to do the rest o today?”

Maho hesitated, then shook her head. “I don't know. Mobilizing is impossible like this. I am thinking we should perhaps just let people rest.”

“You're not just saying that to go back to bed with me, right?” Miho smiled when her sister looked at her sternly. “I know. What about ascending the hills? Not just us but a number of our soldiers, armed. We could at least survey the area from up there.”

“I should leave the smart plans to you from now on.” Maho's stern look just evaporated.

“Bad sis. No being lazy for you.” Miho could only joke and talk like this to Maho. Even if she could fool around a bit with the girls from the anglerfish team, she was still their commander and in their eyes, the school's savior.

“I hate that we have to whisper.” Maho could understand what Miho was saying normally, but she couldn't use that, not really. If she was caught being informed in Japanese and acted on that information, that was breaking the rules.

“The next time we met in war, I'll understand whatever you say.” Miho stepped back with a smile. “{Checking Troops.}” The bits and pieces of German she knew was not enough for a conversation but good enough to tell her, sometimes, what she was doing.

=== Eisenkreuz Imouto ===

“I can't believe I'm saying this-” Erwin drew a card from Mako's hand. “But I'm bored.”

It was one hour short of noon and the fog was still thick as mud and they could go nowhere. It was a lot better elsewhere, but even if they could navigate once they were out of the base, it was still impossible to mobilize anything when they couldn't see three meters ahead. The location of the base had backfired on them – the fog accumulated right on top of them.

Sitting inside her tent with a few others that had been similarly bored, Erwin was playing cards. The early morning had still been busy but then the two armies had rapidly run out of things they could do. The top of the hills to each side were occupied by a handful of soldiers and used to observe the surroundings but the fog was still present in general and making it a rather uneventful job.

“I win again.” Hana was one of the four that squeezed themselves into Erwin's tent. It didn't smell that good inside but they were all used to that by now. “Perhaps we could make the game more interesting?”

“Sure.” Erwin didn't sound too enthusiastic, but it was difficult to be enthusiastic about anything when the standing order was to _recover and rest_. “We don't have anything we could bet.”

“How about a king's game order for the winner?” Mako was fairly good at old maid because her expression, or lack thereof, made her difficult to read.

“I like that idea.” Noriko, who was not just passing the time but also seeking shelter from her pursuers, didn't really care what they were doing as long as it was relaxing. She had been the stress relief for the other three on her team and that had ended up stressing her out a lot.

“Any objections?” Erwin grabbed the remaining cards and put them all in one big stack. One queen was already put aside since the deck didn't have a joker card. “Okay, whoever wins gets a king's game order.”

The first round went over surprisingly quick and came down to a battle between Hana and Mako – and it ended up with Mako winning. “Oh.” Mako hadn't expected to actually win and then thought about her order briefly. “Erwin, you like Yukari, right?” Mako looked somewhat lethargic. _Everyone knows already but I wanna hear her admit it_. “Not friend-like but jump her bones like.” Mako used quite the language; and didn't embarrass anyone.

“Yeah.” Erwin admitted it without really hesitating. “But everyone knows, right? I thought nobody but Caesar knew and was all secretively but even Miho knew.”

“I want a refund.” Mako didn't know about even Miho knowing and now she felt cheated.

“No refunds.” Erwin grabbed the cards and dealt the next round. This one ended with Erwin winning who then singled out Mako. “Who do you like?”

“Hm… I guess Sodoko. She can be a real pain though.” Mako wasn't really embarrassed to talk about that either.

“It looks like we have only seasoned veterans here when it comes to talking about embarrassing things.” Hana knew that she would end up being asked that question sooner or later, most likely sooner, and she didn't know how many people were aware of it yet. She had no intentions of lying or deflecting, though.

The third round ended with Mako winning again, who then stared at Hana for a long moment. “Noriko, what's your relationship with your team like?”

Noriko exhaled slowly and coupled with a sigh. “It's not a secret to anybody, really.”

“You're the main, right?” Mako followed up and specified her question.

“Well yeah. They all confessed to me on the same day so I got them together and told them I would only date any of them if I could date all of them. I was sure I could handle that. I was determined to handle it.” Closing her eyes, Noriko clenched a fist. “And I am handling it! But it's kinda stressful.”

“I don't know if that's impressive or stupid.” Mako's response got a laugh out of Erwin, who agreed with that assessment.

“Sometimes I wonder if Miho will end up like that too.” Noriko received a card from Erwin, who dealt for the fourth round.

“Like you? With a beautiful girl on each arm and a cool one by your feet?” Erwin enjoyed mocking Noriko just a little bit. Nothing harmful, just good fun during a card game.

“You make it sound like I'm some kind of harem protagonist.” Noriko hummed for a moment. “I guess I kinda am.”

“There's someone Miho likes though.” Erwin just put that out there and finished dealing cards. “No idea who. Probably not a girl.”

“Given who her mom and sister are, you're probably right.” Noriko discarded one pair only, which was terrible luck.

“Miho never really talks about her dad, does she?” Hana was around her a lot but didn't really know that much about her family.

“I don't think I've ever heard her talk about her mom or dad.” Mako put down three pairs, which was good luck.

“That's because you're asleep all the time. You're like a bear that's hibernating all year around.” Erwin put down two pairs.

The round continued and this time Noriko won. “So Erwin, tell me why you aren't confessing to Yukari. I mean, if you know Miho likes someone, it's pretty obvious Yukari is not gonna get together with her. High school is only three years and you're both second years already, third years soon.”

“It's one thing to drive a tank into the midst of danger and take fire… you know, confessing is hard. Harder even. I guess I don't want her to reject me. It takes some serious courage to confess. You wouldn't know, you got confessed to, three times in a day!”

“But it's not like you're that close to begin with, right? I mean, there's no great friendship to be lost here. Just gonna be a bit awkward if she turns you down. And she probably won't. She likes all the military stuff and you're a walking encyclopedia of it.”

“Don't call me an encyclopedia please. I'm a general.” Erwin shuffled the cards again. “Anyone else wanna deal?”

Hana took over and the next round was over quickly and Hana won. “Mako, are you and Sono not going out then?”

“Hm? No. I mean, I did get my hands on her the night we first got here, but she hasn't asked me out or anything.”

_I think she is waiting for you to ask her,_ Hana thought and let it go.

The next round ended up with Noriko winning. “So. Hana.”

“You want to know if there is someone I like, right? There is.” And anticipating the follow up question, Hana mustered her resolve and just spit it out. “It's Saori.” There was a strong lack of reaction to her reveal and Hana felt a little disappointed. “You all knew?”

“I did.” Mako revealed that she had been aware all along.

“Not _knew_ knew but kinda… you got your eyes on her a lot. But that is a tough nut. She's always going on about finding a boyfriend, right?” Erwin wanted to wish Hana the best of luck, but luck alone wouldn't cut it.

“Denial.” Noriko was the only one there that was actually dating someone. “I've seen her hang around the first years from team rabbit. She's definitely like the rest of us and just doesn't want to accept it.”

Hana looked at Noriko like she had just revealed to her that the earth was, indeed, flat and not a sphere. “What makes you think that? How does she act around the first years?”

“Kind of hands on a lot.” Noriko 

“Is… that so.” _I need to have a word with Saori later_.

The next round ended with Erwin winning. “What does everyone think about why there are so many girl and girl relationships in the army? Looks like Kuromori isn't any different from us there by the way.”

“Less messy.” Mako didn't really think too deeply about it.

“Since tankery is a women sport, I guess it just comes naturally. You spend hours locked in the same metal box with your compatriots, you survive enemy bombardment and persevere to finally obtain victory. It's no surprise people get together there.” Noriko thought about it a lot harder however.

“I think there might be quite a few that enter tankery knowing that it is an environment that is rather… tailored for such endeavors.” Hana looked at it more romantically.

“Gotta agree with Noriko here.” Erwin thought the same. It was the hardships and ecstasy of tankery that forged unbreakable bounds.

“Where did the rest of your team go anyway Erwin?” Noriko knew exactly where **her** team was.

“Caesar vanished into the fog. Saemonza and Oryou are asleep next door” P _robably more passed out than asleep. I didn't think the inside of one tent could reek so hard of sex._

“Caesar vanished?” Hana was curious about that. “Speaking of her, do you know if there is anyone she likes?” Dealing the cards for the next round, Hana was starting to feel like this might be the last one before they had to think of something else.

“Yeah, there is. It's probably a girl based on the handwriting but I have no idea if she is older, younger, if she still goes to school and what not. Caesar gets letters from her every two weeks or so. She refuses to tell us anything about though. I guess the thing with Brutus got to her.”

_She is not the real Caesar though…_ Mako thought to herself and discarded four pairs in one go. _This round is gonna go quick_.

But instead of going quick, Erwin and Hana were stuck pulling from each other for a few minutes at the end. “You think whoever Caesar likes is also in the army?” Noriko was bored just watching those two endlessly trade the same card.

“Maybe.” Erwin finally picked the right card and won. “You some insane poker face, Hana.”

“I try.” Hana put down her cards and was very much bored now.

“I'm gonna take a nap.” Mako yawned, got on her feet and walked out of the tenth. “See you at dinner.”

“I'm gonna go too.” Noriko was bored of card games now. “Probably also gonna take a nap somewhere secluded.”

“So anywhere on the base.” Hana joked and got a chuckled out of the volleyball player. “See you later. Good night.”

“What are you gonna do?” Erwin got the cards together and put them away and leaned back. This tent was basically her home and shared it with Casar. It had been quite the effort but Ooarai had their base up and, mostly, running before the rain ended.

“I'll go and have a word with Saori.” Hana felt her heart aflutter when she thought about that, but the others were right. School did not last forever, and neither did this war. It was a golden opportunity for her. “See you later and thank you for the card game.” Hana waved to Erwin and left, leaving the German translator on her own. With everyone on standby there was nothing for her to translate anyway, so she just lied down. _Maybe I'll take a nap too._

=== Eisenkreuz Imouto ===

Both Nishizumi sisters were sighing. With everything being locked down by the fog, there was really nothing to do, even for the commanders. And after spending every day, every waking minute since the war began being busy, this just left them restless. Miho had fixed Maho's hair and they had made plans to crush Bonple for their access to a river – everyone was in need of a bath, even if it was a cold one.

“It's hard to relax like this.” Miho looked through the same document for the third time. “It doesn't feel right when there is nothing to do.” She had already taken off her boots and military uniform, sitting on the field bed, not knowing what to do with herself. Not even Miho had planned for _time off_ in this war.

Maho was no different. Where she had dealt with with overwork just a few days ago, now her body and mind was refusing to just do nothing. Spending time with Miho looked like an appealing alternative, but the moment the two got close, tried to kiss, they both felt it wasn't right. They were supposed to be leading armies, soldiers and tanks into battle. Not flirt and get all hot and bothered when nobody was looking.

And when they were honest with themselves, they both felt and didn't feel like it to begin with. Doing so in the morning and in the evening, after having done their job, it was _earned_. They hadn't accomplished anything of value that day, but that was about to change.

Without announcing herself or speaking up, someone entered the tent and surprised both Maho and Miho with her shameless insubordination. The sisters were surprised too by the way she conducted herself next. Her index finger in front of her lips, she signaled them to be quiet, to not make a sound. She was unarmed and then knelt down, close to where Miho sat.

“I have important information. But the price is that my source won't be harmed.” Her voice was hardly more than a whisper, faint enough that no drone outside the tent could possibly pick up on it.

Miho glanced to Maho and then she nodded once. She trusted the girl because she was one of hers. Maho spent a few long seconds thinking. Seconds that made the girl's heart beat faster still than it was already. But this was the stuff that the girl dreamed off. Secret meetings with leaders in the shadows, at night or in the thick fog. A place where one could arrive and leave without being seen. Secrets traded for money, loyalty or passion.

Maho opened her mouth to say something and then she didn't. The short brown hair of the girl was a mess and her eyes conveyed a seriousness, a passion, that was well beyond that of a regular soldier serving their nation. Maho nodded as well, giving her approval. The girl in front of them rose up, her hand stretched out before her fingers curled into a fist – _follow me_.

Slipping out of the tent without being noticed, the girl in front navigated the fog with expert precision, as if she had made the trip a dozen times in advance to practice. They passed between tents and tanks, slowly but decidedly, unnoticed by anyone. Not a word was said during the entire way, but two times the girl in front stopped, a faint hiss to stay still and silent as someone passed nearby.

And then they left Ooarai's base and passed through Kuromorimine's as well. Fifteen minute of careful leading and following entailed their little journey and this time allowed doubt and worry to fester in Maho's mind. Still now, with Miho's presence and unwavering faith, she suppressed those thoughts, burying them deep and where they would never surface.

Finally now they were out of the base, just beyond the final line of defense, sneaking through what would have been within perfect line of sight for the guards on the tanks. A rough hundred meters outside the base, it was impossible to tell which direction the base was in anymore, they stopped. And finally the girl released her voice, speaking a language that the sisters did not recognize. “[In bello gesta sint magni momenti eventus-].” And her voice trailed off, as if she wanted someone to finish her sentence.

“[Exiguis casibus diffugiunt].” Maho and Miho turned around in caution when a voice made its presence known right behind them. Out of the fog stepped a girl with long blonde hair, wearing a combination of uniforms that completely hid her origins. She shouldered an AK-47 assault rifle of Bulgarian make. “You kept your word, Tak- Caesar.” The girl put down her gun, opened the buttons of her uniform and took the military clothes off on the spot, revealing the gray uniform of Anzio beneath. “Before we start, you need to understand that this meeting never happened. You were never here. You never saw me. I was never here and Caesar never heard from me.” Her voice was quiet, so she would not alarm the guards that were a hundred meters out.

Maho took a step forward and positioned herself slightly in front of her sister, between the enemy combatant and her lover. The girl that had lead them there on the other hand joined the side of the blonde.

“I'm sorry for the secrecy Miho, but such is war. If you must break the law, do so to seize power.” Caesar stood close to her foreign ally, thinking of the moments they would be able to spend together once they were finished.

“Miho… I dislike shady dealings like this.” Maho didn't so much believe in fair play as she believed in straight forward combat and overwhelming power. But if one of Miho's subordinates was doing this, there had to be a good reason.

“As powerful as your Axis of powers may be, you cannot hope to compete with Saunders, Gloriana, Pravda and Maginot united. And beyond still, Chi-Ha-Tan will not be swayed by words or gifts to join an alliance. Your options are few and getting fewer still quickly.” _This way of talking is a little tiring. But Takako wanted me to retain the atmosphere of a secret meeting._

The two commanders looked at each other. They had known about Saunders and Gloriana, but the other information was new to them. “How do you know all of that? What proof can you show me to make me trust you?” Maho was still suspicious of all of this. Perhaps Miho's soldier had been tricked.

“She would never lie to me.” Caesar didn't say her name for fear the fog had ears and was listening.

“I believe in Caesar.” Miho put her right hand on Maho's shoulder. “It makes sense.”

“We knew about the arrangement the Allied made with Pravda several days ago and we set in motion the events that led to Bellwall being attacked by the Allies, in an attempt to entrap Maginot. Right now, Bellwall is in a state of confusion – we transmitted a message out on Bellwall's channel after infiltrating them, declaring that they were to cease all hostilities against Kuromorimine and Ooarai. This led to the Allies faking an attack that forced Maginot into their midst and by extension turned Bellwall into an enemy of the allies.”

_That is some meticulous planning and execution. Anzio did all that? Without risking a single tank, they caused two armies to become enemies._ Maho was both impressed by this but also grew much more suspicious of the girl now. “And?”

“Take Bellwall. You cannot win without them. The world believes they are secretly allied with you already. And they will welcome you with open arms. You need them to fight Pravda and the Allies. We arranged for an attack on Maginot, hoping to cripple them. But in the event it would not, we planned that the Allies would move out to rescue them – their thus increased bond will eventually make their response time become sluggish and expose a weak point that can be used for attack. At this moment, we have spies operating on foreign soil, feeding information about the Allies' movement and plans to us. Information and misinformation are weapons far greater than any single tank or person.” The girl took a small piece of paper from inside her chest pocket and handed it to Caesar. “Contact Bellwall over that channel. Based on our intelligence, BC Freedom seeks glory alone. They will not be your allies, but their ambition will drive them to seek vengeance against Maginot.”

“I appreciate all this information, but why are you giving it to us?” Miho was curious if she was acting under orders from Anzai or someone else.

“The Axis is but incomplete without Italy. But Italy sealed its own fate in the past by joining the fight openly. That is why I am here now, like this.” _I told Takako the truth already, but they don't need to know why I am really here._ “Bellwall can be a formidable ally. Their efforts in preparing for this war exceed that of any other army and there is still one advantage they have no one else possesses.”

_Bellwall… the delinquent school. If I remember correctly, they operate mostly German tanks and they are very tenacious… no, ferocious even. Compared to Maho's Kuromorimine and especially Ooarai, they are like wild beasts. They would make an excellent spear against Pravda. Even with them, if we cannot count on Chi-Ha-Tan or Anzio to interfere with the Allies, then it will be a direct confrontation of numbers, experiences and tactics. If they have Pravda and Maginot with them… even if we have BC Freedom interfere and ally with Bellwall, it will still be a harsh battle._ Miho was so absorbed into her thoughts that she missed what the girl said next.

“I see. Ironic, how closely the war now resembles the one of the past.” Maho was still paying attention on the other hand. “Regardless of my suspicions, I must thank you. It was a great risk you took.”

“War never changes.” Caesar offered another quote, one that did not belong to her ancient predecessor however.

“Do not wait too long before you act. Bellwall is a fickle beast that cannot be tamed. Utilize their anger and confusion to chain them to yourself.” Picking up her clothes again, the girl put her motley mixed military uniform back on and finally picked up her AK-47. “Enjoy your leisurely stroll in the fog. Perhaps another time you might have met someone inside of it.” And without another word, the girl retreated backwards into the fog, not turning her back to the others, first turning into a shadow, then gone completely.

Caesar was still there, lamenting that she didn't get to spend more time with her. “We should go back before the base realizes you were ever gone.”

Miho returned from her world of thoughts when Maho grabbed her hand and tugged her along. “What do we do now?”

“We'll discuss this in your tent.” She had almost said _our_ tent by accident. “You.” Maho directed her voice at Caesar, walking very closely in front of her. “How do you know that Italian?”

“I've known her for a long time. From before I was interested in tankery. We must be quiet now, we will be in earshot of the guards any moment now.”

Said Italian was already at the far reaches of the fog, using a special compass to navigate – as the needle turned, so did a secondary needle on the surface of the small device, allowing whoever held it to tell precisely where north was by touch alone.

And someone was waiting for her, still obfuscated by the fog. “[L'hai conosciuta?]”

“[Si.]” The blonde sighed. “[Solo per un breve periodo.]” _I really wish I didn't have to leave so soon. It's been a while since I last saw Takako and we didn't get much time alone. But at least I saw her and had a bit of…_ The beamed as she recalled that half an hour she spent with Caesar. _That's why I volunteered for this in the first place_.

She was eyed with suspicion. “[Non hai detto niente di inutile, vero?]” Speaking in absolutely fluent Italian, with no hint of an accent, the girl picking up the blonde started to move. _I know you're in love, but you need to stick to the script, Carpaccio_.

“[L'onestа и la migliore politica.]” Citing an Italian proverb, she lied. _I told them a little more than what I was told to say. Takako is my love and I shall protect her if I can. In war and in love, a woman is often divided between loyalty and passion and so am I._ Carpaccio caught up with the other girl in an instant. “[C'è stata una parola dalla nostra altra operazione?]” She was worried about the operative that was most likely with the Allies right now. They had no high ranking contact there, which made things difficult. And that Darjeeling woman was far more easily suspicious of outsiders than even Kuromorimine. _I hope they did not shoot her on sight._

“[Niente finora.]” The girl hadn't heard anything but they didn't maintain radio contact over these massive distances either. “[Andiamo.]” _We need to increase our pace. It'll take us until nightfall to rendezvous at point zero._

=== Eisenkreuz Imouto ===

A big problem presented itself to Maho and Miho – justification and origin of the intelligence they had obtained. They secretive meeting had almost certainly not been recorded. That was why Caesar took such intense precautions to get away undetected to begin with, they realized that now. But even so, if they suddenly had information they didn't have before, and it was difficult if not nearly impossible to act on said information while concealing they had it at the same time, there would be inquiries in where they had gotten it.

So Caesar offered herself up. The meeting had taken place but instead of the Italian speaking simply Japanese, she had used Italian and Caesar translated for them. She hadn't told anyone about her studies of the language until then, a perfect secret. Carpaccio had asked her to learn it, shortly after the rulebook had gone out. She had also asked her to keep it a secret – that had been the last letter she sent to the roman history buff. There was of course no way to validate whether the meeting had truly taken place like that, but Caesar openly explaining everything they had heard to them again for the audio logs made it seem verifiable and well within the rules. The entire plan hinged on her ability to speak Italian and Caesar proved to be decently capable.

After that second, staged, meeting had ended, Miho and Maho started to make their own plans, with the help of Erwin, who was present as translator. All three of them were sitting in operations, which was otherwise largely deserted. “We should not change our plans regarding Bonple. I agree with Caesar that we should contact Bellwall as soon as possible. Even as we are now, our chances of winning are very small against the combined forces of Pravda, Saunders, Gloriana and Maginot. I was hoping to talk to Nishi to have Chi-Ha-Tan participate on behalf of the Axis, even if they were to be just a decoy or distraction. It looks like they got to her first.”

Maho waited for Erwin to translate, even though she didn't need it. Appearances were important, to maintain the sanctity of the rules in the eyes of the world. “{Four gegen two. And those four make up three times our numbers, possibly more. It's schwierig to get reliable information on Pravda. Even if I wanted to fight them with just Ooarai be meiner seite, I wouldn't be able to win.}” _Bellwall… I did consider them at one point, but I have heard only strange and risky things about them_. _Including them into our alliance will be like trying to tame a wild wolf._

“Even with Bellwall, this will be a hard fight.” Miho still had plans to win, but she was almost completely sure that a full frontal confrontation would result in very one-sided slaughter. There were ways to fight a larger force with a smaller one, but it didn't work when the fighting could stretch out over days and resources like food were also an issue. _War is way more complicated than any of the books I read make it sound. You have to think of so many things it makes my head swirl at times_. “What about BC Freedom? They seem hostile to Maginot, who is a member of the Allies now. Even if they will not form an alliance with us, we can simply leak information to them, possibly supply them with goods and mechanics. We could use them as a well aimed distraction.”

“{You've become cruel, Miho. Using them like that.}”

Miho started to pout a little after Erwin translated. “I would welcome them into an alliance, but if they don't want to, that is their prerogative.”

Maho really held in her smile and continued on after Erwin performed her one-sided duties. “{Bellwall will respond to strength alone, not authority or nice words. I should be the one to contact them. From what I understand they speak German, just like Kuromorimine.}”

“If it's strength they respect, there is nobody better than you.” Miho felt confident that her sister could get Bellwall to fall in line, so to speak. Even if it was only due to that completely false reputation she had. _If they knew what Maho is really like, they would completely change their mind_.

“{I will handle Bellwall in the evening. Even they should be more amicable after they have eaten.}”

“I wonder… Anzio is clearly out there, but there is one more school that I wonder about.” Miho paused but held up her hand to signal Erwin she wasn't done yet. “The girls that helped us during our match against Selection University, Jatkosota. They were formidable, even with just one tank. But it is strange. It's almost like they just vanished after a certain point.”

“{You think they were defeated? I remember them being quite ausgezeichnet in how they handled themselves. By now, a number of the smaller schools have to have been defeated. If Pravda or the Allies fought them, it is highly like that they were just zahlenmäßig unterlegen.}” _It is difficult to win against much greater numbers. Eight versus twenty is difficult but manageable, but something like eight versus forty, or sixty or even more than that will be close to impossible. Not even Miho could get out of that easily, if at all_.

“I have no proof, but my gut tells me that they are out there somewhere. It wouldn't surprise me at all if they just showed up in the middle of a battle and joined in, wrecking havoc on both sides with their mobility. Being a small force also means it is easier to hide.”

“{I kind of feel like eating fish now.}” Maho's stomach grumbled. She had been feeling hungry for a while now and she wanted to see Miho laugh.

The younger sister held it in and just snorted briefly, chuckling a little, before she got out of her chair and took a short but deep breath. “We can discuss strategy against Bonple later.” Miho was halfway to turning around and walking away when she remembered something. “What happened to Bonple's commander?”

Maho pulled a sour face. “{She's dead.}” After seeing Miho's unhappy look, she explained herself. “{They refused to negotiate at all when we contacted them. I offered her to negotiate her own release and she refused that as well.}” Maho was well aware that Erwin didn't know about her soft, caring personality underneath the commander of steel she portrayed. “{A single shot to the head. We disposed of the body already.}” _Well, she was declared dead, untied and escort from the premises. She must have made it to the closest subterranean entrance hours ago_. People that were declared killed all left the war like that. Tanks however were left until the competition was over. Cameras and accountants from each school kept track of who took what parts for means of compensation and returning things after the war.

“Bonple will stop existing tomorrow then.” Miho responded almost as coldly as Maho and Erwin looked at her with big eyes, full of admiration. Miho's one flaw was that she was too compassionate and it looked like she was fixing that now.

=== Eisenkreuz Imouto ===

“[主砲、敵を追尾して！撃て！]” Nishi's voice hammered through the ears of her subordinates over the radio, giving the general order of firing all main guns. The late evening sky was lit up bright for just a brief moment as metal struck metal and the decisive blow was dealt. Viewing the metal carnage from her tank, Nishi was one of the few people that commandeered her tank standing up instead of looking through the originally intended slit in the armor for the commander. Message after message arrived that they had won a resounding victory, thanks to their commanders new tactics – largely lifted from Ooarai and Kuromorimine. “[作戦完了.]” Declaring the operation a success was almost an understatement. Within a five star shaped encirclement were over a dozen soldiers that were rising the white flag. They had mobilized everything they had, every single tank, and still lost painfully.

The Czechoslovak army was completely destroyed and Japanese soldiers were already rounding up the survivors that crawled out of the tanks, making no prisoners. This was a lesson Nishi had learned from Kuromorimine and Pravda; a lesson she drilled firmly into her soldiers, even though it was quite brutal. _To destroy an enemy utterly and completely does not destroy just the enemy but also instills fear in enemies to be_. Nishi found it not very honorable to be doing that, but she knew she had flaws and she had to overcome them. Her passion and compassion were part of those.

“[指揮官.]” One of her soldiers, her driver, right below her inside the tank, called out to her. They did not address her by name, only as _commander_ when out in the field.

Out front, the driver had turned the tank sideways before so it was to the east of the battlefield, was a small tankette parked between a number of trees. It was too small to be from the Czechs and it was showing no signs of attacking or even being interested in the carnage. The driver inquired what to do and Nishi stopped to think – just long enough to overcome her impulse to yell _charge_ and for someone to contact them on the radio.

They identified as a friendly force that had information for sale. The tankette was kept waiting for more than three minutes and finally showed signs of trying to leave when Nishi herself took command of the radio and hailed them to wait. She was interested in what they had to say and sell.

=== Panzer Halt ===


	4. Chapter 4

The night was bitingly cold. She had been in some extreme situations before, such as that match against Pravda where they had been surrounded in the middle of winter. But this was just as bad. Waking up in the middle of the night and having to go to the _bathroom_ , which was basically just a small plastic stall hooked up to basic plumbing a few meters beneath the earthen surface of the ship, was really not her idea of a good night's rest.

Stepping back into the tent, Maho's tent, Miho was shivering all over, cold and desperate to get back into bed. She had barely laid down in the sleeping bag when she saw Maho get up from her field bed and stumble towards the entrance. _You have to go too?_ Miho thought but was quickly corrected. Instead of leaving, Maho closed up the entrance extra tightly, to keep the cold of the night out and anyone curious from just peeking in.

Turning over to the side, facing away from the field bed, Miho closed her eyes, trying to prevent even the tiniest bit of warmth from escaping the sleeping bag. Her legs tightly kept together, her arms crossed over her chest; she was trying as hard as she could to stay warm. _Next time I'll put clothes on… even if I really have to go_. Upon feeling the sleeping bag being pulled open, Miho flinched so hard that she pulled her legs towards her chest. Before she could figure out why Maho had suddenly opened up the sleeping bag, she knew. Two strong arms decidedly found their way past her own arms, so tightly wrapped around her waist that they were less like a girdle and more like a corset. Her sister's hot breath tickled her neck, Maho's breasts the two pillows and only thing that kept them apart by more than a fingers width.

“I'll warm you up.” Maho didn't bother to whisper. This was not the place or time to pretend she didn't have ulterior motives. Their duties had kept them busy, even with the fog, and Maho was at her limit. She either would have to masturbate in secret, and Miho would definitely notice, or she would have to go ahead and push the limit; of herself and her sister's. “I want to have sex, Miho.” The kind and somewhat shy Maho took a backseat now. Pretending to be tough and cold for so long had rubbed off on her a little; she could definitely be assertive and demanding now. Her throat was burning as she said those words to Miho and she was sure that her sister could tell just how hard her heart was hammering inside in her chest. Harder still than the engine of the Panzer IV in combat.

She didn't wait for Miho to make up her mind or devolve into a mess of uncertainty and self-doubt. Sliding her hands under Miho's shirt, a simple white shirt she wore just when she went to sleep, and pulled it up. The still cold and damp feeling sleeping bag touched upon her warm skin, sending shivers down Miho's spine and neck. There was no resistance from the little sister but no initiative either; her thoughts locked up in a stalemate that couldn't decide what to do, how to respond.

Hot air and a gasp was forced out from within Miho's mouth; Maho didn't waste any time and not only pushed her right leg between Miho's so far up that her thigh rested against her sister's panties, no, she also moved up her hands, pulling the white shirt over her sister's breasts, groping them so strongly that Miho winced a little, gasping and swallowing loudly. She couldn't keep her voice down without physically covering her own mouth and there was no space or time to do just that.

The fondling was anything but amateurish, almost as if Maho had a lot of experience doing it. And she did, although it was only herself who had been subject to her fondling. Rubbing over nipples, pinching them lightly, them pulling and flicking them lightly with her fingernails, Maho completely dominated her little sister, body and soul.

Until she suddenly stopped. The sudden withdrawal of the sensation was so intense that Miho tried to turn her head but couldn't quite get far enough to look her sister in the eye. Her hesitation flew away as she turned around, half stripped, using her elbow and hips to turn on the spot because there just was not enough space to roll over. And when she finally came face to face with Maho, she turned scarlet red in the dark. Maho looked at her in a way she had never seen **anyone** look at her before. Her eyes closed by a third, her mouth slightly open and her tongue sticking out. She was not just waiting for an adult kiss, she was demanding one, all without words.

Miho didn't just oblige, she flew into the invitation, her arms still in front of her chest, now pressing tightly between two bodies. At first she just stuck her tongue out herself, amateurishly trying to imitate what she had seen in some adult manga on the internet. She couldn't tell if she was doing it right or wrong, but it certainly felt good. The heat and softness of her sister's tongue, the bits of saliva, almost like hot glue, sticking to the corners and inside of her mouth, part of it her own and part her sister's.

At this point, she couldn't think of Maho as her sister anymore, or as someone she admired. She was just a girl that she desired, sexually, romantically. Her shoulders stung as she forced her arms free, forcing them around Maho's neck and pulling her in so close that their foreheads touched, strands of their hair hanging in their eyes, just above the steadily wilder getting play of tongues. Miho lost her breath first and had to stop, wildly gasping to recover and trying to shake the hair from her face.

Maho pushed forward still; deep down her instinct telling her that she couldn't stop for too long or dangerous thoughts would settle in. Unable to open her own shirt, which had buttons, she just pulled it up. And because of the buttons and because she was a little larger than Miho, the shirt acted like a girdle right above her breasts, making them stick forward.

Miho squeaked a little when she felt Maho's breasts not just touching her own but outright forced on them, their nipples missing each other at first but starting to rub against each other as Maho started to moving her chest up and down. Miho could feel just how wet she was getting from the kissing and the other stimulation. And if she herself was so wet, Maho could be no different. Reaching between the legs of the girl in front of her, Miho could feel the outlines of her partner's vagina with her fingers. What little hesitation and doubt had remained within Miho until then evaporated with the sweat that was starting to show on their bodies.

The older girl's breath stopped when she felt her little sister's finger push against her panties, sinking in a little, and she became hyper aware of just how wet her panties were already. Before she could recover from that startling sensation, Miho started to rub against her crack; not slowly but quickly and hard, fully able to tell that foreplay was over already.

With the ferocity of a wild wolf, Maho lunged forward, forcing Miho's finger almost inside herself through her panties. But that was not her goal. Grabbing the younger girl's shoulders, Maho's tongue left a trail of what felt like boiling saliva, stretching from Miho's collarbones to her ear. Opting to skip nibbling and gentle caressing of her sister's earlobe, Maho softly bit into it just before using her tongue to lick the surface of her ear.

Both of them felt sensations from all over, sensations they had never experienced like this before. Their crossed legs, their erect nipples still rubbing against each other's skin like they were now. “Maho… kiss, kiss...” Miho was not the most eloquent in situations like this but it didn't matter. Instead of just following her sister's request, Maho drew a trail of hot wet all the way from her ear to her lips, biting into Miho's lower lip and then sliding in her tongue without warning, a heated battle for dominance emerging in Miho's mouth. A battle that took a turn in Miho's favor after the girl moved her entire hand inside Maho's panties, her fingertips immediately soaked in her lewd juices. The kiss broke for a moment and even in the dark the two of them could see their desire in each other's eyes. “Pervert… getting this wet from having me touch you.”

Maho didn't bother to say anything in return, her arms quickly moving down and pulling Miho's white panties all the way down to her knees, limiting her freedom and also creating a massive turn on. As closed as the sleeping bag was, Miho could still feel a cold draft for a short moment. That sensation vanished on the spot when Maho slowly rubbed her entire palm over Miho's crotch. “You don't even shave… what a dirty girl. And look how wet you are...”

Supplanting one hand with another, Maho held her fingers right in front of Miho's eyes, slowly pulling her fingers apart and showing off just how much Miho's wet was sticking to them. “You horny girl. This much, just from-” Maho's eyes widened and the words got stuck in her throat. Taunted by her big sister, Miho had stuck not just one but two fingers in at the same time, moving them around wildly inside her sister.

 _She's so tight…_ Miho's finger were squeezing down on but that didn't impress her. Rather, she bend her fingers and felt a rush of adrenaline when she could feel Maho gasp for air just before she threw her head back. Getting a little carried away, Miho almost pulled her fingers out when she felt Maho's hands on her ass cheeks, dangerously close to the wrong end. “Not there!”

Maho played with the idea of teasing her for a second but then just moved her hands back to the front. Instead of imitating her partner, the older girl focused on her sister's clitoris instead. A single pinch was all she needed to make Miho squeak like a small girl, her entire body shaking for a moment. “Did you come a little from that?” Maho could tell that she had. Her finger movement was much slower now and she had her eyes closed. “I'm not satisfied yet.”

And neither was Miho. Trying to get on top of Maho proved to be too hard; it was her who ended up with her back on the ground and her sister on top of her. It was too cold, even now, to leave the confines of the sleeping bag, so she carried the full weight of her sister. And Miho's excitement and lust spiked like crazy when she felt Maho spread her legs just enough to make her pussy connect with her sister's. There was no more real thinking for either of them. Giving themselves fully to lust and desire, their bodies grinding against each other quickly and intensely, their lower halves producing sounds that would have driven either of them insane if they heard them in any other situation.

 _I love you, I love you_ , both of them repeated constantly to each other, mixing in their names every other time. Carrying on like that for almost two minutes, Miho was shocked when Maho suddenly lunged forward again, smothering Miho's face with her breasts. But that was not the goal. Maho grabbed a metal thermos flask and threw it with full power against a suspicious bulge in the tent's back. There was a loud _donk_ when it hit something and the follow-up sound confirmed it was not some _thing_ but some _one_.

Maho wouldn't have been bothered by this normally. The bulge had been there ever since Miho came back and she had ignored it ever since. But being on top of Miho, she could see that the bulge in the tent was moving in a specific pattern and she was definitely not too happy with what that girl listening in on them was doing.

The bulge vanished and Maho tried to back up, only to freeze when Miho started licking her breasts, sucking on her nipples, both at the same time, driving her older sister almost insane. She was surprisingly sensitive to that, almost as much as she was sensitive down between her legs. Keeping herself up with her arms, her slightly elevated position put her in prime position for Miho to use her right knee to grind against her crotch. And the second Miho caught on to that, Maho lost all of her strength, dropping right on top of her sister, burying her face under her breasts. Rolling off of Miho, their positions reversed in an instant. But unlike Maho, Miho spread her legs wide and bent over far, sitting on Maho's hips and also lying right on top of her.

The sisters continued on with another kiss that escalated into a sloppy combination of licking each other's lips and trying to catch their partner's tongue with their lips. Maho waited until Miho let her guard down, lovingly clinging to her, until she moving in one finger, then another when she felt that Miho could take it. The favor was returned almost immediately, the two sisters entering in a contest of speed to see who could make the other climax first through intense and heated fingering.

Side by side when their contest ended in a sudden draw, the two of them looked at each other, smelling of sweat and love, first out of breath, then embarrassed, only to lovingly gaze at each other after for a while before starting to grin and finally laugh quietly.

“I love you, Maho.” Miho had no idea where her panties had ended up at, and she was not about to dive into the pretty damp and wet sleeping bag to find them.

“I love you too, Miho.” Maho's breasts hurt and she finally just gave up and pulled the still buttoned up shirt over her head with what little strength she had left right now. “You got bigger since I last saw you.”

“Liar. I haven't grown at all since we saw each other at home.” Miho smiled and then felt embarrassed when she realized what Maho really meant. “You pervert. That is where you were looking when I came out of the bath?!”

“I could feel you looking at my butt when I came out of the bath, too.” Maho just smiled softly in return to Miho's now embarrassed look. “It's a bit… wet in here.”

Miho almost slipped and would have said _That's not my fault_ but it was at least half her fault. “I don't think I can sleep like this.”

“Can you stand?”

“My knees feel a little weak but probably.”

“On three I'll open up the sleeping bag and we can jump into my field bed.”

“We need to sleep, so no second round.” Miho **wanted** a second round. On one hand she was satisfied right now. On the other, she had a few years worth of desire to catch up on.

“The bed wouldn't survive.” Maho smiled a little and then put her hand on the zipper. “One… two...” The second she counted to three, both of them got up as quickly as they could. Miho felt **really** naked without her panties but didn't stop to look for them in the dark. Stumbling forward as quickly as possible, the two sisters dove into the security and relative warmth of the field bed, huddled up together to both fit in there.

Both of them in a shared embrace, they looked at each other with deep crimson on their faces. They hadn't thought far enough ahead to fix their shirts and now they were being turned on again. “Miho… bear it. The bed really won't hold.”

“Your leg is between mine!” Miho countered and looked away. There was not enough space to **not** hold on to each other. It would be a miracle if they both managed to stay on the bed while asleep at all.

“I can't help it.” Maho tried to remedy the situation but moving about only made her thigh strafe against Miho's crotch and leave a lot of wet marks on her skin, turning her on again. “You… think we should go back to the sleeping bag?”

Miho didn't say anything and tried to drive out her excitement. But every breath made her breasts rise lightly against her sister's and that just kept turning her on. She didn't need to say anything. Before a minute was past, the two of them jumped back into the sleeping bag, zipping it up and returned to their tight embrace from before. They would be sore and sleep deprived in the morning to come.

=== Eisenkreuz Imouto ===

“{Hold the line!}” Maho's shouting was as much inspiring as her behavior. Jumping out of cover while her personal unit was giving cover fire, she pulled the pin from a hand grenade and threw it with insane accuracy towards the enemy line. The grenade itself didn't have the real explosive power of an explosive but it was basically a paint bomb. Anyone within five meters of the thing would definitely die. Those grenades were expensive but there was no point in hoarding something in a situation like this.

Instead of finding only Bonple, the Axis was ambushed by a regiment from Pravda that either had the worst timing in the world or had been there for exactly that purpose. Within minutes the fight had moved from a purely tank based battle to a mixed one. While at least forty tanks were cruising the zone around the an almost perfectly circular shaped forest zone, the forest itself was crawling with soldiers. Ooarai, Kuromorimine, Pravda and Bonple sent their best infantry soldiers in and it had become a chaotic mess. Pravda couldn't coordinate with Bonple but without translators present and the heat of the moment, Ooarai and Kuromorimine were in the same boat as their enemies.

The situation worsened when Bonple and Pravda started employing underhanded tactics of stripping the fallen and pretending to be allied combatants to infiltrate enemy lines. Within Kuromorimine and Ooarai itself respectively, this was not an issue because everyone knew everyone else. But if someone in an Ooarai uniform tried to infiltrate the Kuromorimine lines, that was a real danger.

Miho couldn't sparse a single thought for her sister's operation because Pravda was putting up a serious fight despite being out of their usual territory. But more so than Pravda itself, the possibility of another ambush kept Miho on her toes and too cautious to make decisive decisions that could end the battle. Every little opportunity was a potential trap that could cause the full might of Saunders and Gloriana to swoop in and that would be a completely impossible scenario. They had mobilized only forty percent of their forces, which ended up being an almost equal numerical match for what remained of Bonple and the regiment from Pravda.

“Mako, take us around to the northern side.” Miho was still giving commands from up above, and using binoculars to keep track of everything that was happening. The battle was raging on three fronts, all closely to the forest proper. Mako took a turn so sharp that Miho nearly fell down the hatch, a shell roaring a few meters past their rear just a moment later. With the chaotic situation, Mako was really working twice and thrice as hard as usual to avoid taking a potentially lethal hit that could strand them in the middle of a tank war zone.

Saori had to cover for Yukari who was out and about as one of the elite infantry forces, which slowed down the firing process immensely. Hanna also worked double time as both spotter and gunner. A few times she had to shout over Miho to tell Mako what kind of turn to make so they wouldn't get shot at from three sides at once.

“Mako, right!” Hanna gave another emergency order and the tank turn again, leaving heavy drifting marks in the grass. And before Mako could stabilize the tank, Hanna opened fire and hit a pursuing KV-2 with such precision that the shell destroyed the barrel, rendering the tank completely unusable. There was no time to take a breather however.

Four infantry from Pravda came sprinting out of the forest right as they passed and Mako was unable to take another heavy evasive maneuver so soon. One of the four managed to jump on the side and hang on, an assault rifle on her back as she climbed up. But she didn't get far. A heavy Japanese boot hit her face and a bullet replaced the boot a moment later. Shot right in the head at close range hurt a tremendous amount and Miho wanted to avoid doing that as much as possible, but she would chose hurting enemy combatants over dying and leaving Maho alone in this mess.

Just staying on top of the tank was already an exercise in acrobatics with the way Mako was forced to drive. Two KV-2 collided with each other as they tried to slow down the Panzer IV from both sides. Forced on all fours as Mako pushed the pedal to the metal, Miho didn't even bother getting back to the hatch before looking around. Most of Kuromorimine's forces could hold their own against Pravda, even without Miho commanding them. But the situation was continuously escalating now, and there was no resemblance of order and formation anymore. Pressing a button on the collar microphone she had, Miho opened a channel to all Kuromorimine and Ooarai forces. “{Tactical Retreat, circle formation.}” Miho had practiced saying _Strategischer Rückzug_ , _Kreisformation_ in German earlier that morning, even though she had been a little more tired and sleep deprived than expected.

For Kuromorimine, a command from a Nishizumi was law. Whether this was Maho or Miho didn't matter, they trusted those two with their lives, literally. The Rabbit team and the Mallard team tanks had been incapacitated and the inhabitants had turned their now hunks of metal into temporary fortresses, firing on anyone stupid enough to approach, Kuromorimine uniform or not. The Germans on the other hand had lost four tanks so far. Not a great loss, but still something they felt shameful about. But Pravda was tenacious and ferocious if nothing else. The Russians didn't seem to fear death in the slightest.

The battle inside the forest was heating up at the same time as Miho ordered the tactical retreat. Maho found herself surrounded by the numerically superior ground forces from Pravda and Bonple and had taken cover on top of a small hill, with a number of large trees serving as natural cover points. She had Yukari and Sheska with her as well as two injured soldiers. One of the two injured, a girl with a black princess haircut, was free enough to make demands of her commander. “{You have to leave us. We will fight to the death, and if necessary seek death to avoid capture and interrogation.}” The soldiers of Kuromorimine were ready to embrace death in the name of victory and their commander's survival.

“{Nobody asked for your opinion, soldier.}” Maho didn't want to leave anyone behind but they were outnumbered, and not only that, but also outgunned. She trusted in Yukari's capabilities because Miho had praised her a lot, and most of all she didn't want to return to Miho telling her that she lost her best soldier to something as weak as numerical advantage. She wouldn't be able to bear the shame of disappointing Miho like that. And worse still, it would be a blemish on Kuromorimine's pride.

“{Commander.}” Yukari spoke only the most rudimentary German. Little bits and pieces she picked up from Erwin and following original audio world war 2 records. “{We escape can. Only one safe.}” A drone was hovering right over their head so there was not a chance in hell they could get away with breaking the language rule.

 _Only one of them_. Maho took a good look at the two injured. The girl with the princess cut had taken several shots to her right leg. The other had taken a single shot to the shoulder, but it was a large caliber. _One of them won't be able to walk again, the other… might bleed out, but if we get her to the medics, she might recover to full combat ability. Or at the very least, she will be useful around the base._ “{Sasaki. How much do you have left in your clip?}”

The princess cut girl checked what remained of her assault rifle magazine. “{Half.}”

Maho loosened one of the girdles she wore around her right thigh. Four grenades were fastened to it now. “{The German Reich thanks you for your service. I will make sure that your fellow service women learn of your sacrifice.}” Maho could see that the girl was about to tear up but then swallowed her emotions and saluted.

“{Ma'am, yes, Ma'am!}” Grabbing the grenade girdle and holding it to her chest, the girl was surprised for a moment when she was picked up by the Japanese soldier that was with them.

“{Grab! You!}” Yukari pointed at the other injured girl and then at Sheska. “{Cover fire.}” This one went to Maho, who trusted in Yukari's judgment right now. Sheska struggled a little carrying another person and her gear, which ended in Maho wielding two assault rifles to make things easier on Sheska.

“{Wait ten five second.}” Yukari vowed to herself to talk to Erwin about improving her German a little. And without warning, she started running, opening fire on whatever she could see moving, drawing a ton of attention to herself by giving a front-side piggyback to the injured girl. Accumulating a pursuit of almost ten people in seconds, Yukari succeeded in drawing away most of the people that had them surrounded.

But even as an almost super-soldier, Yukari had her limits. Carrying another person, an injured one at that, with her on top of all her gear was too much to get away from other trained individuals. And especially the soldiers from Pravda proved to be enormously tough. _How the heck do they train? They have legs like logs._

Bullets were soaring right past her legs and face, which was Yukari's cued. Faking a hit and falling, she dropped the injured girl, rolled sideways and then shouted. “No, the secret mess-” Cutting herself off, Yukari used a devious trick that Hanna had taught her. Even though the other armies had to pretend they wouldn't understand, they would still temporarily react to what she had said.

The German girl was completely surrounded by soldiers that eyed her, unsure whether to follow the rules completely and pretend they didn't know what that Japanese soldier had said or get a possibly decisive advantage.

And that was their downfall. The girl pulled a girdle from beneath her combat uniform and looked up in defiance. “{ **Glory to the German Reich**!}”

Maho could hear the explosion of several grenades going off at once all the way where she was, using trees as cover and protecting Sheska and the other girl. They were on high alert and almost shot Yukari when the Japanese suddenly leaped out of the thicket, grabbed Maho and Sheska by their hands and pulled them forward, only to stop short a moment later because something **very** distinct was flying right towards them. “Granate!” Sheska yelled out of instinct. There was no time to jump out of the way and seek shelter, not like this.

Maho and Yukari both didn't have the time to think of any counter measures. And luckily, they didn't have to. Some was charging after the grenade with almost superhuman speed and actually caught up to it just in time to hit the grenade with the butt of her rifle, sending it flying just past the tree that would protect them from the blast.

“{Erika! What about your tank?}” Maho couldn't help herself but ask.

Erika just shook her head wildly, bent over, vomited and immediately pointed towards the direction she had come from. She didn't have air to provide an explanation and her legs were completely on fire. And still she forced herself forward without even so much as a shoulder to lean on.

The group of now five arrived at the edge of the forest, where a Kuromorimine tank had been faking being defunct until now. After seeing Erika and Maho, the engine revved up and the hatch opened. Yukari and Erika stayed up top, armed to the teeth.

“Your name is Erika?” Yukari asked and immediately realized that Erika had to pretend she didn't understand. But they didn't have time for chi chat anyway. The tank's driver could have been certified as insane based on how hard she pushed the engine and the tracks. Not only that, but before Erika could even consider giving an answer, the two of them were being fired upon by units from within the forest, pursuing them.

But from the top of the tank, they had cover, mobility and superior arms at their disposal. While Erika returned fire with her assault rifle, which didn't have the effective range needed to pose a real threat for as long as the pursuers also remained out of range, Yukari started unpacking something from her rucksack.

Erika looked at the extreme military hobbyist like she was an alien as she assembled an actual heavy machine gun, the Sumitomo M2. Weight; 38 kilos, as much as some of the lighter girls that served. This one came without a tripod and T&E, making it considerably harder to use. Without even asking for Erika's permission, Yukari sat down in front of her, right between her legs, using her like a wall to lean on.

And the second Yukari pulled the trigger, she understood why. The recoil of the M2 was making the recoil of the Kuromorimine standard issue Heckler & Koch HK416 look like it didn't even exist. Every shot was like someone was punching her chest and she was only feeling the recoil through Yukari and not directly. The bullets traveled towards the forest at almost 900 meters per second with an effective range of 1800 meters. Their pursuit disappeared in an instant.

 _Being hit by this must be like being hit by a baseball thrown by a professional pitcher. At least._ Erika wondered if this kind of weapon was even allowed to be used on human targets, but if this Japanese girl was using it, it was probably fine.

Yukari stopped firing the second the pursuit completely dispersed and stayed out of range. She had limited ammo for her M2 and, worse, she would end up with bruises all over her ribcage, arm and shoulder handling this thing without a tripod. But if she added a tripod and T&E, the whole thing would be almost as heavy as she was. Most girls would have felt ashamed of weighting over sixty kilos at her height, but Yukari was mostly muscle. No one in Ooarai could hope to compete with her on a physical level.

“{That was damn impressive.}” Erika didn't care if Yukari didn't understand the words; she would at least understand her tone.

While Erika and Yukari were bonding over their selfless service to their Nishizumi commanders, the situation got worse. Pravda and what was left of Bonple created a seemingly haphazard formation that split into two. But Miho immediately recognize that formation for what it was. A trap. To each side of the forest was one approaching half of their forces, fielding half an arrowhead formation; or so it seemed.

“Tri-Line Frontal Assault formation, south. All Panzer Vor!” Miho was tense. A single lost battle would not mean the end of the war, but it could make winning impossible. Her order was not met with the instantaneous acceptance that Miho needed, with several drivers hesitating to leave their rear wide open to the approaching Pravda and Bonple force.

Those that hesitated nearly overshot the others after Maho shouted in the radio herself. “{All personnel ignoring a direct order will be treated as deserters and punished under the Kuromorimine code of tankery!}” That lit a fire under the asses of the hesitating drivers and sub-commanders.

Forming three lines of tanks, a total of twenty-seven tanks pushed hard towards the south, meeting the combined force of the Russians and the Polish. Before they were in shooting range, both sides opened fire. Miho decidedly ordered everyone to leave the back completely open and instead fire into the forest, between the large trees.

The gunners were met with confusion but followed suit, lest Maho yell at them again. For three volleys they could not see what they were shooting at; then an explosion went off inside the forest. That was Miho's cue. “Full speed ahead! Panzer One to Fourteen, focus fire on right wing of the enemy formation! Ooarai and remaining Panzer, focus fire on point 188, 92 within the forest!”

Erwin had trouble translating things as quickly as Miho said them but the order still went through in time. Two more explosions went off in the forest and the approaching force was suddenly started to slow down, trying to go in reverse. But Miho had already given the orders necessary.

With surgical precision and explosive force, the Kuromorimine squadron broke into the right wing of the enemy formation, forcing them into complete disarray and incapacitating four tanks of Pravda, losing two Panzer in the process but creating an exit path for the others.

Pravda and Bonple had split their forces and sent a third, independent unit, right through the forest. Had the Axis divided their forces to deal with a war on two fronts, the third unit would have broken right into their flanks, causing massive damage to formation, morale and numbers. The only thing that tipped off Miho was the actual number of tanks. Something that no normal person would have been able to keep track of in a battle that raged at any point in time at least fifty percent out of sight of the commander. But Miho had been getting operational status reports from radio operators for a while before the retreat. And that alone had told her that something was definitely amiss.

What Miho did not expect was what happened next. With almost everything they had deployed for the mission, the two armies made their escape right through the middle of an enemy force that outnumbered them now and that was now trapped in their own trap. But something still didn't feel right, not to Miho or Maho, which was why the retreat continued instead of switching to an offensive tactic. But even their bad feeling couldn't properly prepare them for the next catastrophe.

Shells started hitting the ground, coming right out of the sky, hitting everyone indiscriminately. There were no flag tanks in this war, which meant that total elimination was the only way to destroy an enemy force. It was too dangerous to stay up top, so Miho retreated inside the tank, not a moment too early. She had barely taken position to look out up front when a shell hit their tank, a Panzer IV, right at the top but bounced off because the caliber and velocity weren't high enough.

Saori received a report and immediately relayed it to Miho. “Enemy force detected by infantry scouts, 48, 111, 62! Total number: S-Sixty-eight! German, Russian and Japanese makes!”

Miho's mind worked overtime to figure out if this, too, was part of the setup that had been the ambush by Pravda but she decided against it. _Too much collateral damage for Pravda. Opening fire on yourself or your allies? That would make no sense_.

“All tanks retreat south in free formation! Rendezvous point is 48,172,199!” The order was bounced off Erwin for translation as usual and the Axis broke rank, file and order for Miho, dispersing like a pride of lions hunting after different prey.

Pravda tried to pursue but with one third of their forces still making their way around the forest, another third inside the forest and one third taking fire, it was impossible. What was already a chaotic encounter of six armies got even more wild when a wild mix of Russian and German tanks suddenly rampaged over a hill, leaving the bombardment strategy to their Japanese allies alone, heading straight towards Pravda.

“They're not Japanese!” Saori found the channel the enemy forces were using by complete accident. “I don't recognize what language this is. Permission to for-”

“Do it.” Miho didn't need to hear that request all the way to the end. Redirecting the sound from her headphones to the small speakers, Saori had everyone in the tank listen to wild shouting from girls for a moment.

“I would recognize Italian, Spanish, English, French, Russian or Finnish. This isn't any of those.” Hanna still aimed and opened fire as she gave that explanation. She missed, because they were out of effective range, but she created a massive dirt explosion, making it impossible to see anything in their direction. Because Saori was busy, she had to cover loading herself now.

“Burmese.” Mako was the source of some unexpected insight. “What? I was bored and there was a funny cartoon on at midnight on some random satellite channel. This sounds exactly like that.”

“Burmese?” Miho pulled a blank on what army that was and so did everyone else. Mako made a swift turn that shook up the insides of the tank. “I can't tell apart which Russians are Pravda, if they're not all Pravda. And some of them are using German tanks. It's a pain.”

Meanwhile, Maho's tank was pretty cramped with both Yukari and Erika having had to retreat inside because of the earlier bombardment and the absolutely chaotic circumstances that were present now. Yukari wordlessly took over for the missing loader while Erika felt incredibly useless and tried to make herself as small as possible in a corner.

“{We're running into danger of friendly fire with the enemy also using German tanks.} Maho calmly analyzed the situation but wasn't immediately sure what to do about it. Encountering other German models had been a concern in the planning stage, but the solution back then hadn't taken into account the possibility of a third party being present. Or even a fourth, fifth and sixth party. There was still a few moments before the forerunners of the Russian and German mixed army would come into contact range of Kuromorimine and Maho considered overriding Miho and ordering a new retreat point to keep all the German enemies in one direction for concentrated fire.

But she had already been running around too much. Directing a message to her radio operator, Maho quickly dictated an order. “{Attention all Kuromorimine tanks. Commence identification maneuver two in exactly fifteen seconds. All gunners at maximum observation.}” Maho then linked back into the channel that only she, Erwin and Miho used and gave a second command. Another command was returned and Maho's original command revised.

The army approaching from the south, German and Russian. An army struggling to free themselves from the shackles of the forest, Russian and Polish. An army in-between those two, racing towards the south, to where the bombardment originated.

Without a single warning sign, the entire Axis came to a screeching halt, sliding sideways and adjusting their main cannon. The southern army broke what little formation they had, seeing that almost all the main cannons were targeted at their center. Splitting into a two line formation, leaving a large hole in the middle, the air itself shook with the roar of twenty-five main cannons going off in unison.

The impact was enough to cause a minor earth quake, every single active combatant feeling the tremor. Dirt, grass, bushes and even small trees were blasted and dispersed into the air, creating a massive brown cloud. Fifteen shells had hit a singular point, creating a figurative crater in the ground. The remaining ten had impacted on the same horizontal line, almost as if the Axis had acted and fired like a trained firing squad.

Slowing down because they couldn't see a thing, the Russian-German army felt the ground shake again, suspecting a second volley to have hit while they were still out of effective firing range. But **effective** range didn't mean that they wouldn't lose a lot of people and tanks if they **did** hit. Backing further away from the center point of impact, they prepared themselves to break into a flanking maneuver.

They realized too late that the second tremor was lasting far too long. By the time they realized the true cause of it, the Axis was right between them, a singular streamlined line of tanks driving through a zone of complete no-sight. The driver could barely see the rear of the tank in front of them and the driver behind them the same. If the driver all the way at the front deviated even a few meters from the path, they would crash right into an enemy and cause a mass crash of the entire line. A highly risky maneuver.

But the fear of their accuracy and their firing force had paralyzed the approaching enemies, allowing the Axis to break right through them. Miho formed the rearguard, pushing the tank in front of her, which put extra stress on Mako, who was already complaining about wanting a nap.

First breaking through Pravda's line and trap, then breaking through the center of the unknown army that had joined the battle late really upped morale all across the board. Except for Miho and Maho. They both thought the same thing. _We should have brought the entire army_.

But it was too late now for regret. Their survival and pride was on the line. And while Miho was primarily concerned with the first, Maho also held on to the second. Right after breaking through the enemy lines, both Nishizumi's observed strange behavior. The army just ignore them. Instead of turning themselves around and trying to pursue, they pushed forward, towards Pravda and Bonple, who were finally finished reorganizing themselves.

It was then that the Axis became divided. Miho and Maho were in disagreement over what to do next. “We should retreat. This could turn into a fight we cannot win at any moment.”

“{Losing against a force that vastly outnumbers us but whom we best at every opportunity until the bitter end is honorable. We can ask for nothing more. It is definitely preferable to running away like cowards.}”

“Live to fight another day.”

“{To escape now means to give up on our way of life.}”

 _You're too stubborn, Sis!_ Miho was getting a little annoyed. Maho did have a point, but that was only for Kuromorimine. “Give me ten minutes. Just ten minutes and I will give you a fight we can win!” There was a moment of silence before Maho agreed.

Back in the Hippo Team's StuG. III, Erwin was worn out already. Translating at her own pace was one thing, but this in-battle emergency speed translating was really exhausting. Thankfully, being the radio operator, she didn't have to do anything physically taxing, like loading, shooting or driving. And then the orders changed again. There was so much to keep track of now compared to when they had been flying solo that Erwin wondered how Miho did it.

Instead of heading straight south, away from the battle, fourteen of twenty four tanks were ordered, to head west, right up the hill that the enemy forces had descended. “What are we doing now?!” Erwin got into contact with the others from Ooarai. Mallard and Rabbit were still holding their position in a now abandoned spot of the battlefield, unable to get their tanks going again. But from where they were, they had an excellent view of the battle between Pravda plus Bonple and the new Russian-German forces. And they reported back everything.

The tanks struggled to ascend the steep slope and on Miho's order, slowed down on purpose right before they would hit the peak. Then the next order was relayed, the full fourteen tanks that were separated from the other eleven forced themselves up the last few meters of the hill and found the bombardment force. Tanks driven half up artificial ramps made from dirt, so that each tank would become an artillery module.

Panicked soldiers could be spotted on top of those Japanese tanks and Miho didn't pull any punches. “All tanks open fire! Permission to indiscriminately volley!”

The tanks couldn't go into immediate reversal to get off the ramps, and the few that tried anyway almost flipped over. The ground was riddled with deep holes, where earth had been dug up to form the ramps. That too hindered the enemy from deploying and getting off the ramps. Miho had expected to catch them by some surprise but not like this. _Are they unable to communicate? If those inside the Japanese tanks are actually Burmese, it would indeed be difficult to communicate with whoever leads the other army_. “Keep firing until the enemy is completely neutralized! Panzer 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, head around the enemy camp and establish an encirclement perimeter! Open infantry fire on anyone that tries to escape.”

“You sound a lot like your sister right now.” Hanna finished loading, aimed and fired right on a tank that tried to drive down a ramp. The impact caused it to fall off the ramp sideways, flip over and get stuck in one of the holes.

“It's a stressful situation.” Miho didn't see it as a compliment, even though Hana seemed to mean it like that.

The attack on the bombardment camp was not just an attack but a massacre. The Kuromorimine soldiers brought out machine guns and assault rifles, temporarily abandoning their tanks to use them as miniature security towers. It didn't matter if the enemy combatants tried to surrender, waved their arms and got on their knees, everyone was killed on sight.

This intense brutality was against the way Miho wanted to do tankery, but she couldn't force her own way on everyone else. And she had an obligation towards Ooarai to win or at least got as far as she could. _I wish they had not attacked us. Then this would not be necessary._ There was no time, and she didn't have the manpower, to make prisoners and transport them.

Six minutes after her promise to Maho, Miho had completely annihilated the Burmese army. Meanwhile, Pravda was fighting a winning battle against the Russian-German forces. But the tide was turning. From their previous engagement with the Axis, Pravda was short on fuel and munition alike, not to mention worn out.

It was when Ooarai and a detachment from Kuromorimine drove back down that hill where the artillery fire had come from that Pravda changed course. With those forces rejoining the German tanks that had remained on standby by the foot of the hill like an alert guard dog, there was no way they could win. Not only were they tactically outmatched by Ooarai but also numerically at a disadvantage if the Axis joined forces with the unknown army.

Bonple found themselves very isolated and very alone when Pravda suddenly decided that enough was enough and they retreated towards the north. The Axis was several minutes out at that point and even though the Russian-German forces tried to pursue, whoever commander Pravda's forces was a master of the tactical retreat. Using part of the forest as cover, paths that only they knew, they vanished into the green, emerging on the other side much faster than anyone could have driven around. And following the Russians into the forest was suicide; it would be like running into a meat grinder.

The unknown army had of course noticed that the bombardment had stopped entirely. Seeing the Axis approach from the south was like a wake up call to them and just like Pravda, they started to retreat. But Bonple was in the way. Tangled up with the Polish, whose numbers had dwindled down to just a meager four tanks now, both armies were in the cross hairs of the Axis gunners a few minutes later. Unable to take each other out, the two armies were bombarded by Kuromorimine, who was leading the charge, in full force. All four of Bonple's tanks were catastrophically wrecked in the hail of bullets and even the unknown army suffered a casualty, finally able to execute their tactical retreat. A retreat inside the effective firing range of the Axis. They tried anyway.

“Maho, we should let them go. We're almost all out of munition.” Miho didn't want to prolong the conflict any longer now that Bonple was dead. And of the twenty-five survivors, sixteen were completely out of munition. Not to mention that they had to get their injured to the medics soon or _injured_ would turn into _the dead_.

“{You retreat with all those that are out of munition or carry more than one injured.}” Maho didn't want to give up yet. “{I will lead a pursuit of that unknown army.}”

Miho understood she didn't have time for long contemplation. “Only if you **swear** that you will retreat immediately and without hesitation if another army appears.”

“{I promise.}”

“No, not promise. I want you to swear on your honor as the supreme commander of the German Reich.”

“{You really are my sister.}” Maho chuckled over the radio. “{I swear on my honor and pride.}”

Just as the line went dead, Miho and Maho went their separate ways. A few surviving soldiers from Bonple tried to board the Kuromorimine tanks but were immediately shot to death. There was finally peace and silence on the battlefield. Miho felt drained. “Commanding so many tanks with so many people and the infantry… and so many new rules.” She breathed a sigh of relief. “But I guess everything went somewhat well.”

“Are you kidding?” Mako had pulled out a small pillow and was resting her head on it. Right now, the ground forces were collecting weapons and anything that could be re-purposed. The battle was won, for now. So that meant she could sleep. But first, she had to give Miho a piece of her mind. “We were outnumbered, outgunned, ran into at least two traps, and came out just two tanks short of full survival. You did amazing.” Falling face first into her pillow, Mako produced near inaudible snoring a moment later.

“I wouldn't say it like that… but you did really good.” Saori was proud of everything they had accomplished. “I-It was our first time!” Upon realizing what that sounded like, she blushed. “I mean our first time deploying together!”

“Thank you, both of you.” _It's a little embarrassing to get showered with pride like that. Without Maho and her Kuromorimine forces, we couldn't have tried something like this. So most of the praise should go to Maho_.

“Lady Miho! Saori!” Yukari shouted as she came running towards the tank that she originally belonged to. “Are both of you all right?!” Miho and Saori both were grabbed by Yukari in a big hug and squished together. “That was magnificent direction of warfare, Lady Miho!” Letting go of them both, Yukari saluted and then knelt in front of Miho. “I am so glad that you are safe.”

“I am sure you were instrumental in that while the war on the ground was going on inside the forest.” Miho felt even **more** embarrassed now. “I thought you would go with Maho to pursue the enemy.”

“My place is by your side.” Yukari smiled and completely hid the hint of sadness she felt saying that. _By her side as a soldier. I wish we could be more, but… no, I must be content like this!_

“Saori, there's someone trying to contact us!” Hanna called out to the short girl from inside the tank. She was just leaned back in her chair, her arms burning and a headache looming on the near horizon.

It proved to be quite the work effort to get everything together. A brief shootout happened in the forest, between the Kuromorimine forces that Maho had left behind and a few stragglers from Bonple. Miho managed to catch a bit of a break in the meantime. Maho was too far away for radio contact and she tried really hard not to worry.

A full hour passed without word and the preparations to retreat to base were complete. The damaged tanks were hooked up to fully functioning ones to get towed. Materials and guns were picked up and taken as spoils of war. Even in the almost lawless environment of war, towing enemy tanks and scrapping them for parts was considered beneath basically any army. It would be a pain for the administration to determine exact damages, what parts to return and such. That was why nobody engaged in tank scrapping. The tanks of Pravda, Bonple and the ones left behind by the unknown army were all thoroughly searched for munition, the fuel was pumped out and anyone hiding inside was either executed or let go if they surrendered peacefully.

Taking munitions and fuel was well within the rules and not subject to remuneration and return after the war. Miho grew more worried every minute after the hour mark had come and gone. She delayed the departure by thirty minutes because of this, letting people rest and only sending two tanks ahead to get word to the base.

“We are talking about that sister of yours. I don't think there is anything out there that could defeat her. And she did promise to retreat if things got dangerous, right?” Erwin had joined up with Miho. Not because she wanted to talk to her but because Yukari was glued to Miho's side. But getting there, Yukari was not actually there at all but out and about and combing the forest for a third time with a unit of volunteers from Kuromorimine. Erwin had seen them take off and overheard some of the comments the Germans had for Yukari. It was a lot of praise and respect with the odd crude joke thrown in about how she was more future killing machine than human.

“I'm sorry for making you be our translator, Erwin. That must have been really exhausting.”

“Hardly. I could do that all day.” P _lease, please don't make me do it all day. I'll die._

“You're so dependable.” Miho cracked a smile and got back on her feet. Sitting around on top of her tank, waiting to hear from Maho through Saori, was not productive at all. “We'll get going after Yukari returns from patrol.”

“Speaking of patrolling… there isn't a lot of armies left out there, right? I wonder if we are already in the semi-finals or finals of this tournament.”

“Hard to say. There are a lot of things I need to talk to Maho about, on the record. This ambush and the ambush after that… this is all too much to be coincidence. Pravda was waiting for us with Bonple. And the unknown Russian-German army was definitely waiting for Pravda. It definitely looked like we were an afterthought for them but the main goal for Pravda. Someone is pulling our strings and I don't like that.”

“I bet you ruined all of their plans.” Erwin looked really smug as she tried to imagine someone getting word of their clever scheme blowing up like this. “We escaped Pravda, destroyed Bonple, destroyed the Burmese and- oh, right. Oryou remembered that the Burmese are a school called Tategoto High. I never heard of them before though.”

“Tategoto… I heard the name before, but I also remember that their tankery club was disbanded. But at least now we know who we fought.” _I hope that for future competitions they make flags that display the nationality of the army a mandatory standard._

“Hey, Erwin! Get your butt moving already! You're not paid to sit around and chat with the commander!” Caesar was standing down beneath the Anglerfish team tank and wildly gesturing with her hands.

 _I worked my ass off translating back and forth already!_ _But there is no way I can say that with Miho right there and after bragging how it was nothing. Goddammit._ “Alright, alright, guess nothing gets done without me. I'll see you later, commander.”

“Are you used to people calling you commander yet?” Hanna called out to Miho, leaning back just far enough to catch a glimpse of the sky. “Commander.” The sly grin that only Saori could see was not something that Hanna did intentionally. _She's been doing such a good job. It can't be easy to go from commanding eight tanks to three, four, or ten times that._

“Come on, don't call me that when we're just doing clean up.” Miho knew that she was asking the impossible yet could not help herself. “I wonder if Maho likes being called commander, though.”

“You're really worried about her? Even though she's so tough?” Hanna didn't get out of her chair. She was allowed to rest because she had worked double time as loader and gunner. Compared to drivers, gunner and radio operators, the loaders handled the heaviest work on a physical level.

“I worry because she's so tough! She doesn't know when enough is enough and it's better to retreat. She's so stubborn, too!” Miho pouted a little.

“Miho?”

“What is it?”

“You did great work. I was a little worried when we were in the middle of a double ambush, but I believed you would find a way out of it.”

“It's because everyone trained hard and did their jobs really well.”

“Doesn't that include you?”

Miho blushed a little. “I guess so.”

=== Eisenkreuz Imouto ===

“Inteso.” Anzai _Anchovy_ Chiyomi hung up, the radio went silent. Rubbing her temples, she really felt tired and it was barely the afternoon. There were still things to do, reports to make and accept, things to put in motion. Putting her index finger and thumb to her lips she whistled as hard as she could. And within moments, Pepperoni was there, dressed in the Kuromorimine uniform; a perfect dupe of the original. “Things didn't play out as planned with Ooarai. That means Objective 21 moves to...” Anchovy had to consult the papers that were scattered over the table. “Moves to reactionary C. Get word to unit 47 and 48, they're to retreat.”

Speaking in fluent Italian felt just natural to them by now. The sheer speed and fluency of how they talked to each other would made it incredibly difficult for any kind of translator to spy on them.

“Would have been nice if Ooarai was taken out of place. What went wrong?” Pepperoni looked over Anchovy's shoulder, at her note. “Your handwriting is as terrible as always, Chiyomi.”

“Leave my handwriting alone!” Tried to pull the papers together and hide them from prying eyes, Anchovy was blushing in the process of doing so. “Ooarai and Kuromori performed below expectations. Blue Division got away and is being chased by a detachment from Kuromori. Bonple is gone, as planned and Pravda took a hit. Objective 20 was successfully completed. I think that snow witch-”

Pepperoni couldn't help but laugh. “Seriously, why do you call her that?”

“Shut up!” Anchovy got out of her chair and stretched. “That darn snow witch is overestimating those Nishizumis. And after we went to such lengths to set things up for them.”

“The other thing went all according to plan though. Right?” Pepperoni waited a moment and then she had a personal question. “You think we're doing the right thing here?”

“Kuromori, Saunders, Gloriana, Pravda, they'd all just roll over us. As much as I hate to admit it. This is definitely the better choice.” Anchovy looked past Pepperoni. “ **You** have it good, you can go out and see the sun every day.”

“It's dangerous out there!” Peperoni was not too keen on being a spy.

“As for the other thing… yeah. All according to plan.”

“You know, this would have been much cooler if you had some potato chips and took one and-”

“Will you stop being stupid and get a move on?!” Anchovy kicked Pepperoni's right foot and watched her take off. As soon as she was out of sight, Anchovy walked out of the communications tent and headed towards the center of the base, past numerous supply crates, tankettes, tanks, tents and numerous soldiers compiling information, map charts and even doing things like taking apart weapons.

There, in the center, was a large, large iron pot that Anzio had brought with them to make enormous amounts of pasta, because pasta was cheap and water easily accessible. Right now it was empty and so was Anchovy's stomach. Dinner was still a ways off and the water crew probably hadn't even left yet. Looking up, she felt her heart sink a little when all she saw were rocks and darkness. _I really do wish I could see the sun. I hate being stuck inside._

=== Panzer Halt ===


	5. Chapter 5

“{Open fire.}” Maho's order was relayed to all tanks under her command and without question they executed their orders faithfully, firing without warning on the fleeing remainder of Blue Division.

 _Blue Division is finished. What a stroke of strange fortune to run into those two here._ Maho didn't know for sure that they were up ahead. It was too dangerous to have snipers sit on top right now to make certain. And even then it would be a miracle to spot them outside a tank. But she had a gut feeling that they were there. And that made her be more careful than usual. _Gloriana's Darjeeling is the only one that has ever bested Miho since she begun her career as the overall commander of Ooarai. She is not to be underestimated. But more so than her, Saunder's is like a barrel of explosives. One spark and they might charge at us, suicide or not. No, this isn't the place to settle this. Not without Miho and not with our fuel and ammunition count so low._ “{Leave no survivors. We will take no prisoners.}”

They posed little threat for Kuromorimine. With all routes of escape cut off and their initial turnabout costing them half of their already dwindled forces, Blue Division was not only outnumbered but also outgunned in every aspect; power, tactics, discipline.

There was little that Maho needed to do here. There was no need for elaborate maneuvers, for any reevaluations of circumstance. She merely watched the enemy be destroyed before her eyes. And still she portrayed that fearless, ice cold commander that those around her expected. For them it was a matter of course. And although and the same could not be said of Maho, she was used to it now. Much like an actor playing a role hundreds and thousands of times, it was like a mask she could put on at any time.

Her subordinates were well trained to handle trifles such as this on their own. Had the pursuit continued, that would have demanded her attention, but not like this. The trapped animals within the deadly cage, dying off one by one. In a matter of minutes they were no more. With a display like this, any person would expect their enemy, watching keenly with sharp and observant eyes, to behold their power and fear them. _Gloriana and Saunders. They alone would already be a great issue. If it was just Saunders, I could deal with them by exploiting their greatest weakness, the lack of experienced and disciplined command. But Darjeeling more than offsets this. Even with Miho by my side to broaden the breadth of our tactics, it will be difficult to completely gain the upper hand on those two. Miho only commander a large army during her match against selection university and even there she had to relinquish individual tactical command to the respective team leaders. I have the experience to command a large force but I am strictly speaking firmly set within the Nishizumi way. And all of this disregards the new facets that have been brought into this conflict through charade and lies. Bellwall and Maginot. That is to say nothing of Pravda, who has been almost mysteriously elusive._

While Maho stood there, silently contemplating the future, the girls within her tank were stealing glances, wishing they had cellphones to take pictures. One of them thought _Commander Maho is so cool with her eyes staring at the enemy so intently! I wish she'd stare at me like that_! Another preferred to think of Maho as someone who would only be nice to **her** and only when they were alone. Maho was completely oblivious to her popularity.

“{Commence slow tactical retreat. Maintain firing formation in case of aggression.}” _Even though they haven't fired on us there is not a chance that they will tolerate our looting and salvaging. They do not want a fight here, between us and them, any more than I do._ Watching the Allied forces get smaller and smaller until they vanished behind a small hill, Maho maintained her composure until finally they were at a safe distance to turn around and drive forward, homewards.

But things were never quite that easy. Having destroyed Blue Division after escaping death twice, and now thrice, Maho felt relieved and that lowered her guard. It was like heaven itself had it out for her because it was in that exact moment when she was not at her strongest that, without warning, the Kuromorimine force was quickly encircled by an enemy force.

By the time they message that they were under enemy attack was being relayed, Kuromorimine was already within a deadly encirclement. There was nowhere to escape to and nowhere they could break through. Fuel and ammunition were used up almost completely by now and further more, Maho recognized that this was not just any detachment. _These numbers and the way they behaved… this is Pravda's main force. Could they have predicted all of this? No, Katyusha is not the kind of commander that would stack gamble upon gamble like this. Even her aides would not go that far. This smells of something else. And I know I am right because I am still alive._

It was only thanks to their discipline and experience that the German army did not panic and open fire, triggering an instant death retaliation. But that by itself felt strange to them. They were encircled but not fired upon. So what was the main force doing there if not to wipe out the Kuromorimine detachment?

“Maho! Выходите и покажете себя!” It was not coming through the radio but from someone outside, shouting.

“{All units stand down and go to standby protocol.}” That meant to turn off the motors and remain radio silent. _If they show up with their main force now, after having sent a detachment earlier, they want something from me. Miho will never respond to a hostage situation and I will shoot myself before I allow them to use me that way. So will everyone in this unit._ Starting to climb out of the tank, her radio operator reached out to say something but stopped herself.

A strong breeze immediately greeted her when she left the security of her tank and she could tell that without a doubt, she was being aimed at by several snipers. _I always thought I would not be afraid of death… but this situation is sending shivers down my back. I am glad Miho did not get caught in this_. “{What do you want?!}” Maho returned the earlier shout with one of her own. She was unused to raising her voice that much which made her sound particularly deep and cold.

A bullet, from a sniper rifle, hit the tank half a meter from her feet. _A warning shot. So I wasn't imagining the snipers aiming at me_. Before Maho could redirect her focus properly to her surroundings, someone jumped on her tank and within a second, Maho was physically face to face with Nonna, holding a large military knife to her neck. _I know that is not a real knife and still… I can feel her killing intent._

“Где Катюша?!” Nonna's voice was so full of hate and anger that she gave the impression of a villain more so than anything else. She looked even more pissed off than before when Maho didn't reaction to her question. “Ответь мне!”

 _Given her agitated state and that she mentioned Katyusha… Something must have happened with Pravda. I suppose she is telling me to answer her question with that second bit._ “{I don't know.}” Maho had no choice but to answer in German and from the look of Nonna's reaction, pushing the knife ever closer against Maho's neck, so much that it left a red mark on her throat, the Russian didn't understand her answer.

Only when two more Russians, one of them being Katyusha's other aide Klara, jumped onto the tank did things start to clear up. “Нонна, успокойся.” Klara still spoke Russian, but it was quite easy for Maho to make out what this meant.

 _Telling her to calm down will not-_ Maho looked genuinely surprised when Nonna stepped down, holstering her knife and started to rapidly converse with Klara in Russian, far exceeding any kind of possibility of guesswork on Maho's account. “{What is going on?}” Maho was equally surprised when the girl by Klara's sounded cleared her throat and apparently translated for her.

Nonna glared at Maho with such deadly intent that Maho felt a genuine and horrifying shill. _This might be a competition of a sport, but I feel that if I do not give her a satisfactory answer that I and everyone in these tanks will end up much worse than mere casualties of war_. Maho had a revelation just then. _So this is what it feels like to be genuinely afraid of someone? Someone that has the power to kill you._

“{We want to know where commander Katyusha is.}” The translator tried her best but her accent was really thick.

 _Judging from Nonna's behavior, any answer that implies direct denial or absence of responsibility might make her lose it._ “{We fought a detachment of Russian forces about one hour ago. That has been our only contact with Pravda for several days.}” Maho watched Nonna with cautious eyes. If she tried to attack her again, she would have to take a chance and hopefully reverse the hostage situation. She was trained in hand-to-hand combat but… _Taking on Katyusha's second in command in physical combat… She is almost assuredly faster and stronger than me, not to mention infinitely more furious._

Klara seemed to be arguing with Nonna after the translation went through and it ended with Nonna saying something undoubtedly hateful to Maho in Russian before she jumped off the tank. Klara looked visibly relieved with that development but this too only lasted a moment.

“{Commander Katyusha vanished. We captured German operative at same time.}” The translator girl was visibly sweating because of the pressure. She was right in the middle of the worst hot zone in the entire war by a long shot and things could go sideways any second.

“{Kuromorimine does not engage in shady dealings such as infiltration and kidnapping.}” Maho watched the translator struggle with some of the words. “{We do not take hostages or have to send spies.}” She earned a smile from the translator who made sense of things from context.

Klara looked almost as pissed as Nonna now. “Принесите заключенных!” Klara's Russian was impeccable, which made it more difficult for Maho to even guess what she said. And the translator didn't explain this one. Maho waited for a long time in silence, several minutes worth, before two people, tied up, gagged and under heavy guard, were dragged up the tank and dropped to the metal roof of the tank right in front of Maho. Both of them were in Pravda uniforms now, but there was something off about them.

“{They are not ours.}” Maho didn't recognize their faces. “{You, Soldat! State your rank, name and assignment!}” When neither of the two answered her, Maho didn't hesitate and kicked one of them right in the face with her full strength, sending the girl flying to the left. “{I asked you a question, soldier!}”

Many of the Russian soldiers in the tanks were surprised by the extent of violent that the Kuromorimine commander displayed. Kicking someone right in the face was definitely stretching the rules. But it made the situation tense, thrilling, so there was little doubt she would get away with it. Klara on the other hand mistrusted Maho even now. “Пристрели ее.” The translator didn't even need to talk, Maho knew ahead of time. _Shoot her_.

Maho had not been disarmed yet because any attempt to attack either Klara or Nonna would have been met with several snipers shooting her dead on the spot, long before she could do anything. Maho waited until Klara stepped away before she carefully and slowly took a handgun out of the holster by the side of her hip, aimed and fired a single shot. One of the two captives immediately dropped dead on the spot, shot in the head at point blank range. She was not only declared dead but also unconscious from the shock of the sudden hit.

“{Someone is playing us both.}” Maho knelt down, next to the now visibly scared other prisoner and pulled her close. “{Talk. As commander of the German Army, I order you to reveal your name, rank and assignment. Otherwise-}” Maho was caught off guard.

The prisoner reached forward, her hands bound together, and snatched Maho's gun. But instead of firing on the German or any of the Russians, she put it right below her chin, closed her eyes in anticipation of a lot of pain, and shouted just before she pulled the trigger. “Pour la victoire!” The prisoner dropped dead on the spot, knocked out cold from taking a bullet to her chin like that. The deep crimson of Kuromorimine's bullets made it look like she was bleeding out through her throat.

“Не стреляйте!” Klara shouted a single order and no additional bullets flew. Ordering her units to not shoot, Klara could now tell that Maho was not behind this. Because in that single instant when the soldier was about to shoot herself, Maho's facade crumbled for just an instant; she looked surprised and pained. Something else was going on here and she was going to get to the bottom of it.

=== Eisenkreuz Imouto ===

“{Unit 44 and Unit 46 are confirmed eliminated. One was shot to death by Kuromorimine's Nishizumi Maho. The other terminated herself in accordance with her emergency protocol to further sow suspicion and avoid torture.}” Torture was really just an exercise of one humiliating circumstance after another. Being denied to go to the toilet, being denied food, being denied shelter. There was no serious physical danger in it, although Maho had proven that the definition of _serious_ could be stretched at times.

Anchovy received the report with mixed feelings. The two, 44 and 46, knew ahead of time that there was an extremely low chance of returning alive and they had accepted the mission anyway. But it still felt bad to lose soldiers out in the field. “{They fulfilled their mission. Are 45 and 47 back yet? What about the package?}”

In front of Anchovy was just one of many girls manning one of a dozen radio stations. “{All clear according to their last check-in.}”

“{That damn snow woman is scary. To think up a plan like this. A bunch of things went wrong and we're still coming out ahead.}”

“{If I may say so… I am glad we're not out there fighting like the rest of them.}”

“{The poor have their own way of fighting and their own pride! Look at all the good it does them to have that many tanks. They're just being messed with.}”

 _I think she's a little too proud of what we're doing_ , the operator thought.

Anchovy moved over to a different tent, where her co-conspirator was currently standing and looking over maps and documents. “[Mika.]”

“[How were the reports?]” Mika rarely, if ever, addressed Anchovy by name. With her it was usually straight to business. Many of the girls from Jatkosota had been like that in the beginning but warmed up to the friendliness of the Italians.

“[There's not much left out there. Tategoto is as good as done, they have six tanks left. Ooarai basically blew them to kingdom come. That leaves only eight main players and BC Freedom.]” The two commanders conversed in English because they were both relatively fluent in it. Mika did not speak Italian and Anchovy's Finnish was limited to a few choice words mostly relating to food.

“[Hm… I suppose that settles phase two then. How did operation Meltdown conclude?]” Mika looked up from her maps and turned towards Anchovy. Her expression was still impossible to read for the Italian.

“[We fell short of our original goal but we had the emergency protocols for that reason.]” _I hate her. It's mostly my girls that have to do all the really dangerous jobs. I swear she is planning to stab me in the back._

“[This will cast additional doubt on Maginot and the Allies. Their considerable force and only temporary alliance with Pravda will work against them.]”

“[I don't think Kuromorimine and Pravda are that stupid.]”

“[They will have their suspicions but it is urgency and lack of alternative that will direct their actions. The Russians are the grand chess piece that will cause white and black to clash and destroy each other.]”

“[You talk like a movie villain.]”

“[Many a movie villain would win if not for the rules of fiction dictating the hero catch a break and grasp victory at the end. But no such rule exists here.]” Mika's continuous soft smile really bothered Anchovy.

“[So we're moving ahead with phase three? You really think it's going to work?]”

“[It is because that I anticipate trouble that we have plans for so many alternatives. Are you unhappy with how things are proceeding?]”

“[You really sure we're not breaking the rules here?]”

“[A gray area.]”

“[If we all get disqualified, I'm holding you responsible!]”

“[Nothing of the sort will happen.]”

“[Sometimes I wonder if we're really gonna get sponsors like this.]”

“[Not everyone nation favors the muscle head approach.]”

“[I get it, I get it. What was the first step of phase three again?]”

“[Operation Pearl Harbor.]”

=== Eisenkreuz Imouto ===

A happy reunion had to wait.

Maho finally returned to the Axis camp, but not without having to leave behind fifteen people that were now Pravda's hostages and insurance. Hearing the news over the radio ahead of time, Miho still flew into her sister's arms the first chance they could be alone. “I was worried.”

“You and me both. I am surprised they let me go and kept fifteen of my soldiers instead.” They were alone in a closed up tent and spoke in whispers. There was no way the drones could hear them. “We cannot let them rot with the Russians.”

“We won't. But what exactly happened? You were a little cryptic over the radio.”

“I have a few theories. We should sit first.” Instead of having Miho step away, Maho picked her up like she weighted nothing and carried her the one meter to the field bed, sitting her down and then sitting next to her. Telling Miho about her encounter with Klara and Pravda, Maho brought her sister up to speed. “Now for what I think. One, and this is the first of the two most likely options, is that the French are trying to set us up. One of the prisoners shouted in French just before killing herself. Two-”

“It is a ruse to make us think the French are setting us up. But by who?”

“I don't know. It would take a lot of coordination, planning and skill to make that happen as a third party. I cannot think of any army that could do this. But my gut is telling me that that is what is happening here.”

Miho leaned against her sister, closing her eyes and thinking. “They would need people that speak whatever their assigned language is as well as Russian. If they were pretending to be French, most likely that as well. The only schools with enough people to sit aside people just for things like that would be Saunders, Gloriana, maybe Chi-Ha-Tan but I can't see any of them doing that.” Miho paused. “Sis, just so we're-”

“I did not order anything of this sort and I would know if Erika or Koume attempted to give orders like this without my permission.”

“What are the other scenarios you came up with?”

“It could be a ploy by Pravda to lure us into an early fight against the Allies that we cannot win. They might pretend to be on our side and then switch around. But Nonna's rage felt genuine. If she could manage to act out that kind of rage without Katyusha being actually gone I would be really impressed.”

“I don't see Katyusha of all people coming up with a plan like that anyway. Or accepting it. She'd groan and bemoan that the ruse was that she got kidnapped.”

“The last possibility is that we have traitors in our midst. I do not want to think too much about this one because it seems the least likely and there is little to support it-”

“What I don't understand is why the French, who are allied with the Americans and the English, would try something like this with the Russians. The information we purchased tells us that they have a temporary alliance to deal with us. This is why we are working on having Bellwall join up with us.”

Maho hadn't thought that far ahead yet. Miho are a more critical and free thinker than she was, so she wanted to have her opinion before she started to make up her own mind. “That's true.”

A light bulb went on inside Miho's mind. “BC Freedom.”

Maho could recall the name but not how it could relate to the current situation.

“They're French. I remember hearing about this form Anzu. She was looking at sponsorship deals and it looked like France was looking at two schools; Maginot and BC Freedom. If we assume that BC Freedom and Maginot are on opposing sides, it all makes sense.”

“BC would attempt to make Pravda hostile towards the French – which they would believe is Maginot, who are seemingly attempting to replace Pravda in the Allied Forces.”

Miho enthusiastically nodded. “If BC Freedom could turn Maginot into a point of conflict with Pravda for the Allies, not only will Pravda rescind their temporary alliance but the Allies might cut ties with Maginot as well.”

“That is quite the plan. But something about it feels off. It is almost **too** good a plan. Did BC Freedom have someone with that much tactical knowledge?”

“Hm… I don't really know. But considering the circumstances of everything, I think the obvious choice is the right choice just this once. There are too many factors involved in a third party doing all of this. It would be impossible to manipulate everything just right.”

“Could the information brokers be doing it?”

“They could have the linguistic skills, but… why would they do this? If they were after the elimination of a specific team, like us or Pravda, then there would be much better ways to do that. Feeding us false information and luring us into a trap. And once we are gone, whoever is left would have to turn on each other. It would come down to the Allies against Pravda and then the Allies against Maginot. And seeing how they are cooperating, they would not let the information brokers out of the equation before they would finally settle things between each other.” Miho followed the principle of exclusion. “Even if they were the only ones left beside the Allies, they could never win.”

“It is hard to argue with you when you are that convincing.” Moving a little to the side, to force Miho to sit up right, Maho quickly turned and made the most of a brief kiss, no more than a quick smack on the lips. _I wish we had some time to be intimate, but… I worry about my soldiers._ ”I'm sorry Miho, I'm-”

“It's fine. I worry too, so it's not bothering me if we can't...” Miho was still shy when it came to actually putting their relationship into words. Shaking off the shyness, Miho leaped to her feet. “Should we come up with a plan?”

=== Eisenkreuz Imouto ===

“P-Put on some clothes already!” Sodoko might have let Mako bully her, at least she told herself that it was bullying, into having sex with her, repeatedly, but that didn't mean she was not embarrassed by being around her naked.

Mako on the other hand cared so little that she just ignored Sodoko and rolled over. “It's my tent… who cares?”

“I care! It's shameful! Lewd! You're like an old man on the inside!” While she tried berating Mako, Sodoko quickly put on her clothes, almost putting on Mako's panties by mistake. _How did I end up in this situation?_ She asked herself that a lot lately.

“Sodoko...” Mako sounded different from usual. More awake, like she was paying attention.

_Did I finally get through to her?! Now is the time to teach her some discipline! I will make an upstanding citizen of you yet, Reizei Mak-_

“Sodoko, you're too loud. You're annoying.” Mako just rolled over again and pulled her private pillow over her head. “I'm just gonna sleep...”

“...time...”

Mako ignored it but Sodoko kept muttering and repeating herself until she finally peeked out from under the pillow. Sodoko jumped right on top of her, robbing Mako of her breath. “You're like this all the time! But not today!”

Mako struggled to throw Sodoko off but had little chance against an enraged disciplinary committee member. _Is she a demon?_ With struggling being futile, and too much effort in general, Mako just laid back down. “Eh, fine, do whatever. You can go another round if you want.”

“ **T-That's not what I am doing**!” Sodoko yelled and if it had been anyone else yelling, someone would have come and look. But everyone in Ooarai was well aware that if Sodoko lost her temper, it was because of Mako. Most likely because she kept calling her Sodoko, even though her real name was Sono Midoriko.

The inside of the tent continued to be quite tumultuous and this lasted for a full three minutes before someone stepped in. Hanna was the brave soul that stuck her nose in the business of her team mate. “The girls from Kuromorimine are asking us strange questions, could you please be a little quieter? Nobody is bothered by the two of you having… well, we all know.”

Hanna was already retreating when Sodoko leaped off Mako's naked body and forward. “Wait, that's not what this-” Sodoko's attempt to clarify things just made her seem more suspicious.

“Hah. Hanna scolded you.” Mako was still laying there, looking at Sodoko upside down with a smug grin. Being all exposed like that and with a breath of fresh air coming in when Hanna showed up, Mako did feel compelled to put her uniform on. It wasn't uncomfortable either way, so there was that.

Sitting down and watching Mako get dressed, Sodoko contemplated what god she must have annoyed to make Reizei happen to her. _Probably Bishamonten. This is bad enough for that. Always clinging to me, yammering about feeling horny and touching me and stuff… it's not like I can just throw her off, she'd go and bother someone else and then I'd have to sort that out too. If I don't sacrifice myself for the greater good, she could become a plague! It's just… a coincidence that she's really good with her tongue and her fingers. And I don't hate how she smells._

“Watching me put on clothes… pervert.” Mako delivered her line with the full breadth of her ability to lack any significant emotion in her words.

“You're the pervert here! You rapist!” Sodoko jumped to her feet and immediately hit her head on an iron lamp that was hanging from the ceiling bar. Crouching down, whimpering and rubbing the top of her head, she felt something like a cliff press against her face. A familiar cliff.

Mako was pushed against her, checking if she had seriously hurt herself. “You're fine. Don't be a wimp.”

“You're the last person I want to hear that from! You're about to die after walking a kilometer!”

“Humans invented machines and vehicles because they're not meant to walk. It's evolution.”

“I think evolution went backwards when it made you!”

“Going backwards is a lot harder than you think. You should drive a tank sometime to see just how hard it is to properly-”

Sodoko stormed out of the tent before she would finally lose her mind for good. Meanwhile, Mako sat back down, then laid down and grinned. “She's so easy to make fun of.” And while she grinned, with her clothes on, she fell back asleep. She was thankful for Miho and her decision to team up with Kuromorimine. There were so many people now that it didn't really get noticed when she slacked off or slept.

She wasn't the only one taking a break. Miho was halfway and backwards bent over a chair, using a wet cloth to dampen her headache. There was no ice cubes or cooling pads out there in the wild after all. She and Maho had spent hours going over every detail, every possibility and through six different plans before she couldn't go on. Maho was doing just a little better, still dealing with a headache but one that didn't leave her feeling sick to the stomach.

They were both out in the open, so even if they weren't tired and feeling beaten, they wouldn't have had time to be lovey-dovey with each other. But this was just one of the many restrictions they both had accepted. As sisters, they couldn't just be out in the open with their relationship. But unlike other couples, they also had many other excuses for behaving similar to couples. Living together, feeding each other, being comfortable naked around each other, there was almost no end to what they could play off as sisterly bonding or just fooling around for fun.

Both of them looked at Yukari and Erika with relief as they approached, carrying plain metal trays with food. Real food that was not rations. While Maho and Miho had been out and destroyed Bonple, Blue Division and Tategoto, a small group had been scouting and found a supply crate almost nearby, hidden between trees and under what felt like half a ton of mud. While the crate was stock full of food, there was little else of value in there.

But food was one of the most valuable goods out there. A real meal that warmed and filled the stomach instead of rations and packaged things was a great treat for any soldier. Today's menu was tofu steak with a mixed salad side dish. Salad especially was rare to come by out here.

“Thank you, Yukari.” Miho received the tray.

“If you are still feeling dizzy, I can offer my service and feed-”

“No, no, I can eat myself.” Miho quickly turned down a very excited Yukari.

“{Thank you, Erika.}” An almost identical scene took place in German with Yukari and Erika. Both aides looked just a little bit glum as they were turned away. Miho still felt bad about that.

_Two hours earlier, during a brief break that Miho too._

The commander of Ooarai had barely left her tent when Erwin caught her. She had only planned to go and relief herself but now there was apparently more trouble. “Miho, I need to talk to you. Privately.” Erwin looked serious and so Miho quickly lead her behind the tent, into a tight space between crates and two tanks where nobody would hear or see them. “I know this war is probably the worst possible timing to tell you this, but… Yukari is very clearly in love with you.” Before Miho could even react, Erwin held up her hand. “And I like Yukari. I know you don't feel that way about her, so when the time comes, don't act in any way that could give her false hope.” And still before Miho could react to that bomb that Erwin had just dropped on her, Erwin walked off very quickly, her face rapidly turning red and her heart beating like she was marching towards a firing squad.

_Now, Miho eating her meal_

Of course she had told Maho about Erwin and Yukari. Keeping such things secret was just asking for trouble and there was really no reason not to tell her. But it did mean that she had to be a little cold, or at least colder, to Yukari from now on. She couldn't very well tell her that the person she liked was her sister, so bringing up again that there was someone she liked really didn't do much good. Having vanquished the salad first, Miho felt a bit mentally exhausted, not just from her role as a commander but also from her love life. It had gone from nothing to something intense rather abruptly, without giving her any time to get used to it.

“Miho.” Maho was glad that there was no special German way to pronounce her name. She found it funny that German in general sounded a lot like Japanese, just much angrier, much more rude and very unrefined. It was like dropping a bomb on the enemy camp to kill the commander instead of killing just the commander with a head shot from a sniper.

Miho smiled when she saw Maho reach across the table, holding out her fork and a piece of tofu on said fork. Feeding each other required just a little bit of theatrics to sell everyone else on the fact that they were just sisters. Of course, Maho had to add an additional layer of lies because she was always seen as the stone faced iron lady by her soldiers.

“{Don't be a picky eater. Here. Try it at least.}” Faking it like so was almost brilliant, or so Maho thought. Pretending to be tough on her little sister fit very well with her existing image.

Miho hesitated for a moment, playing along with the pretense before she gave up, leaned forward and took the already bite sized tofu from Maho's fork with her mouth alone. “You just want me to eat it because you don't like it.”

Going back and forth like that, they almost fed each other the entire dish. Rarely did anyone look twice at them doing that, with Maho looking like she was disciplining Miho and Miho seemingly attempting to get around eating it or trying to return the favor and punishing Maho. A typical sisterly fight of sorts.

But for Miho and Maho, it was the perfect training and excuse to act like a couple in public. Even after eating, their work was not done however. Minutes stretched into what felt like days as they went over inventory, deployment records, strategy, backup and backups for the backup. They really could not afford being unprepared. And while it seemed unrealistic at the time, they did include plans that assumed Pravda was luring them into a trap.

Lunch time passed and dinner time was approaching when Miho and Maho finally hit their limit. But the world was uncaring. Once they stopped dealing with paper work, something equally important was going on. Meeting just outside the base, well within firing range of the Axis snipers, were nine people. Miho, Maho, Erwin, Yukari and Erika from the Axis side. And the visitors were Nakasuga Emi, Yuzumoto Hitomi, commander and vice commander of Bellwall, the German army that was out and about and predominantly embodied Nazi Germany. Those two also had their own security, much like Miho and Maho brought Yukari and Erika.

Miho was simply listening in through Erwin for the time being as names were exchanged, ranks were stated and protocol was very loosely followed. And then it was time to get down to business. With her red hair, tied into twin tails, and her petite figure, she would have been really cute if not for the way she talked and stood; her arms crossed over her chest, her legs far apart. A true tomboy stance. “{So let's get to it then. You know why we're here. It's getting pretty empty out there and we ain't stupid enough to try and go up against monsters like the Allies or Pravda on our own. Tho, Pravda we can probably take down with us if we wanted to. Allies is too much difference in our numbers. They're like damn ants. You poke them too hard and they swarm you like some kind of multiplying unending army. It's like one of those, you know, those infinite reinforcements in RPGs where you can grind endlessly. Reminds me of-}” Nakasuga Emi was born in Germany, which meant that she was able to skip right past the language barrier that the others had to deal with. Being able to talk German freely in the war had made her very chatty. But this chattiness was often cut short by her second in command, just as it was happening now.

“{Emi. You're going off-topic again.}” Yuzumoto Hitomi was a cheerful girl that always tried hard to keep Emi on point. The short blonde hair and her attitude had prompted some people in the army to call her _Sonnenblume_ , which was the German word for Sunflower.

“{Right, right. Anyway, it's getting a little hot out there and we've heard all sorts of bull about **already** being allied and what not. We did this, we did that, it's like we're the boogeyman. So here we are. We got a pretty good idea of what's still out there. Pravda. Chi-Ha-Tan. The Ants.}”

“{Emi!}”

“{Fine, fine. The Allies. I've got my reasons for not wanting to buddy up with them. You two seem more, you know, our type of folks. And honestly, it would be such a goddamn clusterfuck if we tried to team up with some army that didn't speak a lick of German.}”

“[I'm so sorry for her language.}” Yuzumoto stepped forward and bowed a little with a smile on her face. “{Bellwall can be a bit of a rough place, but I guarantee that we have some of the fiercest fighters out there!}”

“{Much like the Allied Forces, Bellwall and Kuromorimine share a language, making them excellent candidates for an alliance.}” Maho looked to Miho. “{What do you think, Miho?}”

“Considering our positions, we should take their offer. But we shouldn't stand around in the open like this. We should discuss the details of our alliance in private.”

“{It's funny, having someone from the Japanese army around. You know, having to pretend and all.}” Emi was confronted by Maho with a terribly scolding look. “{Right, right, no need to go all ice queen on me.}”

The actual negotiations went far easier than anticipated. Miho gave Maho sovereign control over the Axis, only stepping in when she felt the need to. As it turned out, Bellwall was operating on four fronts and had two bases. A German base, a Russian base and each base a detachment that functioned like a guerrilla strike force. The two bases only kept minimal contact to minimize enemy discovery of their split forces.

With Ooarai already occupying the forest behind Kuromorimine, Bellwall would have to go somewhere else. The very way they constructed their base was tailored around mobility and quick changes of location, which was why Emi offered to be the vanguard. To situation two bases like gate keepers far in front of Kuromorimine, at the foot of each hill. Any army that had fought them before would assume that their one base had been their full force, severely underestimating them. It also created a clear way for Kuromorimine and Ooarai to deploy.

But their alliance in general was much more _we help you, you help us_ type of engagement than a traditional team. Bellwall wanted their enemies gone, but they knew that if push came to shove, Kuromorimine and Ooarai would still stick together when Bellwall was the only thing between them and a final battle between sisters. So they didn't get too attached.

It was already time for dinner when Maho and Miho finally found some time to actually rest. Spending time together in Miho's tent by themselves, away from prying eyes and recording drones, the two sisters could be their real selves in there. “I… thought this day would never end.” Miho felt so drained that she just laid on her bed, resting her head on Maho's left arm. “It feels like we've been up for a hundred hours.”

Maho was even more tired than Miho because she had done almost all of the talking with Bellwall. “I would have shriveled up without you by my side, Miho.”

“Jeez, sis, if your troops knew what cute things you say sometimes, they'd be so shocked.” Miho reached for Maho's face and gently poked her left cheek. “I don't think the organizers really planned this too well. This is too much work for a high school girl!”

“I will have to start studying for exams soon. That will be just as hard.” Maho was not looking forward to that.

“You can't get a scholarship on your tankery accomplishments?”

“Mother would probably be really angry if I gambled on that. She insists that we have a good education, just in case.”

“Isn't it weird that she feels that way? I mean, she's the chairman of the professional league committee. I would want my daughters to go into professional tankery if I had that job.”

“Before all of this, it probably wasn't the most stable job. Tankery still is not that popular outside of Japan, so trying to make a living from just that might be difficult.”

“Do you want to be a professional player?” Miho used her elbow to stem herself up and look at her sisters face. “I wasn't sure about it before, but… with all of this, I think tankery will become a really, really big sport. I don't want to be rich, but there are not many other things I love doing, so tankery might be the best choice.”

“If you go, then I will obviously go as well. It will be difficult to get on the same team, probably. There are agencies, player trading and all those things. Sometimes it's beyond the player's control where they end up.”

“You would follow me?”

“How could I leave my little sister alone in a world like that?” Maho cracked a smile and did the same as Miho, used her elbow to gain a little height. Seeing face to face with Miho, the two exchanged a quick kiss before they plummeted back to the field back proper, too exhausted to even think of anything lewd.

“Do you think there will be grudges after this?”

“There might be. But rivalries between schools and teams have always existed. Kuromorimine and Ooarai might instead become friendly with each other.”

“If we are in money trouble again, we can ask you for help then!” Miho smiled wide. Making a few jokes about such things took the seriousness out of them, making it easier to get over everything that had happened.

“After surviving this long in the war, winning against Selection University and everything else I think Ooarai will be fine. And you're only a second year Miho. You still have the nationals of next year to win. And you better win.”

“Will you be proud if I win?”

“Proud **er**.” Maho made a slight correction and felt bliss when Miho hugged her tightly. “If only I wasn't so tired...”

“Can't we just go to sleep like this?”

“What about dinner?”

“Getting up and out there and pretending to just be your sister…” Saying it as if she had to remind herself just how much work it would be to go and get food, Miho did slowly force herself up. Letting her head hang, taking a deep breath, it all didn't help. “I'm worn out...”

Maho followed her sister's example and managed to get off the bed and stand before she groaned. “My shoulders hurt.”

“Mom used to secretly complain about that. I overheard her a few times when nobody was around.”

“Miho.” Maho turned around and looked right into her sister's eyes, as if she had something serious to say. “If you ever grow out your hair, you need to put it into a ponytail.”

“Is… that your taste, Maho?”

“I will definitely end up looking a lot like mother. We both look a lot like her. I was thinking of growing out my hair since you said last night you would liked it if it was longer. But I will definitely look a lot like mom if I do, and I don't want us to look the same, so- Miho, why are you giggling?”

“You finally called her mom.”

Maho blushed and looked away. “You're a bad influence.”

Holding her right hand towards her sister, Miho waited. “Help me up. I feel like I might just fall without my dependable sister holding me up.”

Maho chuckled. “When did you learn to exaggerate like that?” Pulling Miho from the bed and on her feet, Maho wasn't surprised in the least when her sister rushed into her embrace. “You devious girl.”

“Iron Queen.” Miho's retort struck a nerve and Maho pinched her right cheek. “Ow, ow, war crimes, war crimes are being committed!”

“I will show you a war crime!” Three swift motions; pushing Miho away, reaching behind her legs and back, and pulling her up, Maho started to spin on the spot with Miho in her arms. And it only took four full spins before both of them crashed to the ground, taking a table with them.

That was enough noise for someone to check on them. And they found Miho and Maho on the floor, paper still sailing through the limited air.

“{She… lost her balance and I didn't have the strength left to keep her from falling.}” Maho had to try really hard not to laugh. It wasn't because they were on top of each other, unintentionally, on the floor or because she had spun around like that but because Miho was making crazy funny faces while the guard couldn't see her.

They were barely a second alone again when Maho burst into quiet laughter. “W-What would you have done if they caught me laughing?”

“Play innocent.” Miho put her arms around Maho and kissed her neck. “Sometimes, too much evidence will be seen as a feint and disregarded. If we just play it right, we can do this sort of thing right under everyone's nose.”

“Last night went to your head, Miho. No sex for you tonight.”

“I like it when you take control.”

“Where did my innocent little sister go?”

“You made her not so innocent last night!”

Maho freed herself from Miho's embrace and stretched a bit to shake off any residual sleepiness. “Let's go. I don't want to be the last one at the table. There is only so much of a delay that I can explain away with forgetting the time and still working.”

Miho also got up from the floor, regretting that her tent was so far away from the cooking station. “Must be tough, pretending to be the Iron Queen.”

“I hate that nickname.”

“I love that you talk more now. You were always a bit quiet but I like hearing your voice.”

“It's… because I know you like it. And I don't want to end up like mother.”

“Don't go too far in the other direction or you'll end up like Nakasuga!”

“You're terrible, Miho.”

“Miho the Terrible, Maho the Iron Queen! We just need some kind of nickname for both of us together now.”

“I need to feed you and get you to bed, your brain needs a break.”

“That's mean, sis.”

“Ready to go?”

“Anytime.”

=== Eisenkreuz Imouto ===

“Light the lamps! Close the perimeter! Get word to Bellwall! Move in groups of four!” In the was deepest, blackest, quietest part of the night. Or it should have been. After returning from dinner, Miho and Maho had simply gone to bed, cuddling for a few minutes before they just fell into a deep dreamless sleep. It was right in the middle of the night that Maho woke up, needing to go to the toilet, and fell over the table they hadn't picked up. Waking up Miho with her fall, Miho offered to clean up while Maho went out. And by the time Maho came back, she found Miho in a frenzy.

After Maho had left, one of the guards on night shift had checked in to see if everything was okay. She couldn't communicate with Miho because of the language barrier, but Miho readily accepted her help in cleaning up. It was not until the soldier had left, after putting the table back up and picking up all the documents, that Miho started to organize the papers until Maho came back. And that was when she realized a bunch of important documents were gone. Including the joint operation plans for their attack on the Allies together with Pravda.

The base went from being fast asleep to being wide awake in an instant. Alarms went off, flashlights and flood lights were lit up. Tents were being searched and everyone that looked unfamiliar in the half darkness was being rounded up and doubled checked.

Miho hoped the search would yield results, that the spy, the infiltrator, had not escaped yet. Only about six or seven minutes had passed between the guard leaving and her discovery of the theft. At sprinting speed they could have left the base, but sprinting in the middle of the night would definitely have alarmed the perimeter guards.

Climbing the hill was a possibility but it would be very easy to spot anyone trying to escape that way. There was only one realistic way out and that was right between the two bases that Bellwall had set up. By the time Miho led a search party through the open plains towards that area, Bellwall had already closed the gap. Tanks and soldiers at the ready, they had orders to open fire on anything and anyone that would enter the perimeter zone. Miho's search party turned up nothing.

“{Find her! Now!}” Maho was also wide awake now, giving orders and personally verifying the faces of everyone on guard duty. She couldn't shake the feeling that she should have seen something like this coming. “{Where is Erika? What the hell is she doing?}” To hear Maho curse really made all of Kuromorimine's soldiers nervous.

Everyone felt the exhaustion of the day weight down on them. And it wasn't just Erika that was missing. Yukari and Erwin were gone as well. Maho and Miho reconvened in the center of the base, unable to properly communicate because their translator was nowhere to be found. Moments after they met up again and the spy was still not found, something else happened.

A soldier was found inside one of the tanks, shot in the chest twice and in the head once, the stolen documents on her person. It was one of the Team Rabbit girls from Ooarai, Maruyama Saki. She had been killed with her own weapon from the looks of it.

Miho finally realized what was really going on. “{Target was Erwin. Document not!}” Miho wielded enough German to say just this much. And it was enough for Maho to understand her.

“{Find me Ooarai's translator! She has to be still here somewhere! And where the hell is Erika?}”

Miho had a terrible feeling. The theft was too conspicuous. That guard had to have known she would notice it. And why leave the papers? And kill one of the Rabbit girls? “What was her position tonight?”

Hanna was the first to remember it. “She was assigned tank fourteen on the outer defense ring. That was where we found her. One of the guards called us to help carry her ou-” Hanna stopped herself because Miho immediately burst into a sprint and rushed past her.

Maho followed her closely. “{Get me a full detachment now! And find me Erika already? What is she doing at a time like this?}”

 _Yukari and Erika are gone. They're our most well trained soldiers and our aides. Erwin is our translator. The traitor was posing as a perimeter guard, using the death of one of our own to distract from being checked due to the new discovery. The papers were a ruse. The guard… the guard was a ruse too! We're not searching for one infiltrator but two! They're working together! They must have infiltrated us during the attack on Bonple. It was pure chaos then, did they pose as someone from Ooarai or Kuromorimine and boarded a tank operated by the other team? Or did they make use of our absence to infiltrate the main base? But who? It's no coincidence this happens right after Pravda tries to coerce us into cooperation. Weakening our forces like this… not just by removing Yukari, Erika and Erwin but also by keeping us all up at night. Sleep is important._ Miho's thoughts were racing. Arriving at the specified tank, she started to walk around it. And within the minute she had found what she was looking for. The grass was completely flattened on the outside of the tank, but only in one spot. “They hid Erwin right under the nose of everyone. With all the buzz going on, nobody would have paid any great attention to whatever noises Erwin could have made. But I cannot imagine anyone being capable of taking on Yukari alone. And the guard must have been with me at the time… Caesar?! Are you there?”

The girl in question quickly stepped up to Miho and saluted. “When did you last see Erwin?”

“Not long. We were still up and talking, a girl from Kuromorimine came to the tent and was whispering in Japanese. She called out Erwin to meet someone and Erwin told me to absolutely not follow her.”

 _That must have been a ruse. If she told her Yukari was waiting for her, Erwin would no doubt have followed._ “How long ago exactly was this?”

Caesar felt put on the spot. “I… I can't say! I dozed off after Erwin didn't come back after around ten minutes!”

“You are not at fault here.” Miho quickly calmed down Caesar and then turned to the tank behind her. They were right by the foot of a hill and the only way out was up the hill. Further was only forest and Ooarai's base as well as the cliff. Kidnapping a person and escaping over the cliff was absolutely impossible. _The hills… but how could someone drag Erwin over the hills against their will?_

Before Miho could make any more wild guesses, a soldier from Kuromorimine arrived, horridly out of breath and nearly toppling over, clearly having sprinted towards them. “{Commander! Bellwall is reporting a motorized vehicle descending the off-side of the hill! The report also says that something like a cart was being attached to it by some kind of rope!}”

“{Shit.}” Even Maho could put one and one together here. _We are never going to catch something like a combat jeep in our tanks. And driving one of your own motorized vehicles out of here will take too long. If they drive without their lights, they will be almost invisible in this dark. If only the moon was out. We have the worst luck, Miho._

But their luck hadn't completely run out just yet. A second Kuromorimine soldier arrived, just as out of breath as the first one. “{Report from Bellwall! One of their motorized vehicles was just reported as stolen! They believe the theft to have occurred before our message to form a perimeter came through!}”

Miho and Maho both looked at each other with sudden enlightenment. “{Erwin and Yukari!}”

“Mobilize our two lightest and fastest tanks! Throw out everything we can throw off in a hurry! Get only the radio operator, driver and two people trained for infantry!” Miho knew exactly which tanks those were and where they would be. Thankfully she was trained in infantry procedures so she would not be dead weight.

Maho repeated the exact same order in German and bolted into the opposite direction. “{Contact Bellwall and ask them for cooperation in chasing down the infiltrators! And tell them to open up the perimeter, whoever we are looking for is long gone!}” Maho didn't care to maintain her charade of the Iron Queen in a situation like this. She was rattled and letting her soldiers see that just spurred their urgency.

Both armies broke all records in getting tanks ready to deploy, four of them pressing forward, toward the Bellwall barricade which had now created a big hole to let them through. Their own preparations had taken longer, but right as Miho's tank passed through, a motorcycle with two people on it not only came up behind them but used them as a ramp, which was just unnecessarily reckless.

“Die Jagd beginnt!” It was Nakasuga Emi herself who was driving the motorcycle that now hit the ground, proving that it had excellent suspension and drove up ahead into the darkness. Right behind Nakasuga sat an immensely tall girl, measuring easily over 170cm, wielding a heavy gun whose make nobody could make out in the brief moment the motorcycle went over the tank.

That girl was Yano, the ace sniper of Bellwall. Her nickname within the Bellwall army had become that of Hetzenauer, after the infamous Nazi Sniper that had once shot to death 345 people with his rifle.

“{Now this is a thrill!}” Nakasuga was quite enthusiastic about driving the motorcycle through the night like a crazy person, avoiding obstacles at the last moment because they were going already over seventy kilometers per hour, almost twice the top speed of a tank. And still she pushed the machine.

Yano on the other hand was much calmer and started to scope out the surrounding area as they drove through it. “{Hill B, off-side, clear.}” Spotting a fast moving vehicle in the night was no easy task but doable.

But it was not Nakasuga and Yano that were the ones closest to the infiltrators. Several kilometers ahead was another motorcycle, roaring in the night, with one person driving and another standing half on the passenger seat and half on the back of the driver. Erika was that driver. And Yukari was the shooter. There were only about two hundred meters between them and the jeep that was driving ahead, Erwin tied up and gagged in the backseat.

“{Dodge!}” Yukari shouted after firing a burst from her automatic rifle, missing on the distance. She couldn't aim very well at the driver of the jeep or the shooter in the back because the chance of hitting Erwin was really high.

Erika was glad that Yukari spoke at least some German and pulled the bike aside, a hail of bullets from the mounted machine gun pelting the ground where they had just been. The shift itself was not enough to throw off Yukari, who, in Erika's opinion, was almost superhuman, using just her back and the seat of a shaky motorcycle as footholds to fire an assault gun. Most people would fall off even without trying to fire a military weapon.

Pushing the motorcycle to the absolute limit, they were slowly catching up. The cart that had been attached to the jeep had long since been discarded in an attempt to make the motorcycle crash. But it was dark, the moon was hidden behind clouds and Erika was no expert driver. The motorcycle rose into the air for a split second as they drove down a sudden slope, and this moment was enough for Yukari to loose not only her balance but also fly off the Motorcycle.

What followed was not just a feat of superhuman strength but also insane teamwork for two people that had never really worked together before. That they were together now was only because they had both independently noticed a single soldier behaving strange and moving up the hills. After they saw what was happening it was too late to pursue on foot so they broke into a sprint, meeting up at the Bellwall camp and stole a motorcycle to pursue them.

Yukari was literally flying through the air, a steel grip connecting her arm to Erika's, who drove the motorcycle one-handed now. Without looking back, without knowing what was happening with Yukari, the second she had felt her foot ease up the pressure on her back, Yukari let go of the right handle and stretched her right arm back as far as she could. Not a split second too early.

Managing to use Erika, who was now clinging to the motorcycle with her full body weight and using her feet below the pedals to keep herself steady, like an anchor, Yukari managed to get back on top of the bike, not without dangerously shaking the vehicle.

But they were still in pursuit. Yukari glared ahead, to where the jeep was, still in range. Her gun was gone, she had to discard it to grab Erika's hand, but she wasn't about to give up. “I'm coming to get you Erwin.”

=== Panzer Halt ===


	6. Chapter 6

Surrounded by darkness, both their eyes were glued to the vehicle in front of them, relentlessly chasing those that had kidnapped their ally. The chase had gone on for over ten minutes now and they had no idea whatsoever where they were going. While Erika was driving and Yukari was trying hard to think of something to do that would slow down or stop the jeep, they suddenly came under fire. One of the kidnappers had assembled a rifle and was firing on them in the dark.

Bursting into a zigzag pattern, the motorcycle was losing distance on the jeep, the gap widening. Luckily enough, the motorcycle getting hit wouldn't be much of a problem. “{Ammo?}” Yukari had an idea but she was short the most important ingredient; bullets.

“{Pants pocket, right side.}” Communicating was difficult and when Yukari didn't seen to understand what she meant, Erika briefly slapped her right leg. It was an acrobatic act for Yukari to hold on to Erika with one arm and lean sideways and forward far enough to reach her pants pocket, pulling out a single magazine for a handgun.

 _Tiny. But it'll do._ Digging her teeth into her uniform's sleeve, Yukari ripped it apart, tearing it to pieces, leaving Erwin wondering what she was doing for a few seconds. The first and second attempt failed and she was left with unusable pieces of cloth, but the third attempt, on her other sleeve, produce what she needed. Two longer strands that she could tie together. Putting the magazine between her teeth while she tied the cloth pieces together, Yukari wasn't too happy with the result but there was a harsh limit on what one could do on top of a motorcycle going what felt like eighty kilometers an hour, in the middle of the night. The make-shift sling in one hand and then the magazine in another, Yukari raised her voice. “{Steady!}” She was still limited to specific words and sentences.

Standing on the seat and using Erika's back as a stabilizing point, Yukari pried one bullet from the magazine, put the magazine back between her teeth and put the bullet into the sling and started to whirl. _I saw this in an action movie once, I hope it actually works._ Whirling so hard that the sling created a strange sound, Yukari fired the bullet. She could tell that she hit the jeep because the girl on top of the jeep was diving for safety. She didn't hesitated to repeat the process, firing a second bullet before the kidnapper even processed how she was firing at them.

 _The hell is she doing?_ Erika couldn't look back, but she felt the bullets flying over her head and the sling whirling. _Does she think she's a ninja or something? But if she gets them to back off, fine with me. But still, they're going to outlast us at this pace. I can't go any faster in this dark without risking running over something and both of us go flying into the air. Not to mention, any faster and we'll probably crash the second I have to avoid another salvo of bullets._

Yukari kept firing one bullet after another, firing eight shots in total, before it paid off. Right when the kidnapper tried to return fire, she hit them. Yukari could only tell that she did because they dropped the rifle and it fell off the jeep, vanishing into the dark night. But fortunate moments were often followed by unfortunate ones, and so it did now.

Having reached the outskirts of a forest region, one super extended branch hit Yukari right in the face, like a whip swung by a torturer, knocking the magazine out of her mouth and nearly knocking her off the vehicle. But she had learned from earlier. The second she felt something hit her face, she spread her legs to fall down on the seat, grabbing the seat between her legs with both hands to avoid falling off.

The machine swayed dangerously and Erika had trouble getting it under control. _Can't catch a break, can we? And holy shit, is she made of steel or something? I heard something hit her. It was like a full force slap to the face._ “{You okay?}”

“{Okay.}” Yukari felt blood run from her nose and inside her mouth, but she wasn't about to let that stop her. Spitting the blood out and wiping it from her nose, she made good use of some of the scraps that remained from her attempt to transform her left sleeve. “{Plan?}”

 _I'll have to risk it._ “{Hold on tight!}” And once again, the words didn't connect. “{Grab me!}” And that got through to Yukari. Erika felt her breath taken away when Yukari put her arms around her waist and squeezed. _I did say hold on tight but holy shit._ Pushing the gas, the two of them sped up and because karma is cruel and had quite a bad day, they saw the jeep vanish right in front of them, going down a steep slope. “{Legs!}” Erika couldn't think of anything else that would get through.

Both of them felt their stomachs fall into a deep pit as they sailed over the edge of the slope and left the ground behind. Through their acceleration, they were sailing through the air now, falling as quickly as the slope, hitting the ground with so much force than both girls felt like their legs and feet were about to be torn off; but thanks to using their limbs to hold on to the machine, they weren't thrown off. _They make this look so easy in action movies, but in real life, a few meters drop like this and then landing on a slope is like someone is trying to tear you off the bike and pull you into the sky._ But now she had an advantage. The gap between them and the jeep was a lot less now and she was still accelerating, pushing the engine of the bike as hard as she could.

Yukari didn't need Erika to say anything. Slowly and carefully getting back to standing, she held one hand vertically in front of her face to deter any more branches slapping her. Each second they pushed downward into the dark, after the stolen steep and the captive on board. The gap was closing more and more and without warning, Yukari was suddenly in the air, having used Erika's back and head as stepping stones.

She didn't pay any attention to the horrible crashing noise of the motorcycle or what happened to Erika; she believed that someone like her would walk away from it fine, especially on a grassy slope like this. And Yukari didn't just _land_ on the jeep, she arrived like an angry storm, unstoppable and striking fear into all those that she was about to blast. The girl she had shot at tried to jump her, push her off the jeep, but Yukari was by far the strongest soldier that Ooarai had. Diving down, using her arms to break her descent, she kicked the girl's ankles with so much force that she didn't just lose her balance but nearly did a half flip in the air, crashing to the metal flooring of the jeep's back.

Grabbing the girl's arm and twisting it behind her back, so much that the girl screamed in pain, Yukari didn't make any half measures, grabbing the girl by the backside of her uniform and threw her off the jeep without hesitation. _Movie heroes always make the mistake of keeping the bad guys around. I can't kill her but I can get rid of her._ Yukari didn't know what kind of the language the now visibly distressed driver was speaking and she had no chance to find out. She lost her footing when the brakes were used at maximum force, the jeep sliding over the grassy slope, downwards, and Yukari went over the vehicle, flying. _I've had enough of being airborne for one night actually._

Hitting the grass, braking her fall by rolling sideways, Yukari was back on her feet before the jeep could even push down the gas again. And with the headlights still on, she could see exactly where it was. Breaking into a sprint, Yukari didn't hesitate to approach the jeep head on, even when it suddenly started to race towards her. _Another thing action movies always get wrong is that a car speeding towards you can be easily evaded by going sideways. Or in this case-_ A few meters between herself and the accelerating jeep, Yukari jumped – and landed right on the hood of the vehicle, not standing but squatting. And she anticipated the driver's next move correctly. The brakes were slammed down again and this time, Yukari was ready. Before the centrifugal force hit her, trying to throw her off the hood, she voluntarily slid down, using the front of the car to hold on, her feet acting like anchors, under the rigging. Sharp pain went through her legs when they broke her fall, but now she was right in front of the car that had just braked as hard as it could. And there was no escape from her now.

The driver's seat door was pulled open by her and the driver raised her hands in surrender, looking away from the wheel. But again, Yukari made use of the knowledge she had gathered from action movies. Dragging the driver out of her seat, she threw her over her shoulder, slamming her onto the ground. Pulling the sidearm from the girl's waist, she took aim and fired two rounds in the girl's chest and one round on her forehead, making absolutely sure she was dead.

With the jeep finally hers, Yukari jumped onto the back. And there she was; Erwin. Unconscious, gagged and tied up, but as far as Yukari could tell, alive and uninjured. _Minus a massive headache, probably._ “Erwin, wake up.” Slapping her lightly twice, Yukari started to undo her bindings right after. Removing the gag, then the wrist rope and ankle rope. Now that the adrenaline was getting out of her system, Yukari felt sore all over. Especially her feet and ankles were killing her. _I hope the motorcycle isn't trashed. Walking back… well before that, I don't even know where we are._

Erwin was out cold and wouldn't wake up even after Yukari shook her and slapped her a few more times. Carrying a girl of Erwin's size and weight was easy for Yukari and to avoid an inelegant situation, she carried her over her shoulder, like a large sack of potatoes. _A cute sack of potatoes that speaks German. What was the German word for potato again?_

Yukari noticed movement up ahead and dropped Erwin like she was nothing. Storming ahead like an enraged bull, she made out a human silhouette between all the shadows and jumped right at it. That she didn't push down whoever was there told her that it was not the soldier she had previously thrown off the jeep, but Erika instead. And despite putting all her weight behind that jump, she was simply catapulted over the blonde's shoulder and landed flat on her back. “{You're okay?}”

“{Little.}” _I am going to send her a self-help book on learning German after we get back home._ “{Erwin?}” Extending her hand to Yukari, Erwin helped her up, immediately noticing that she flinched a little when she got back on her feet. _I'm not surprised she took some damage after that stunt. Not that I'm one to talk. I'm still seeing colorful stuff in the night. Probably a concussion._

“{Safe.}” Yukari was annoyed with how limited she was in her communication as well. _I could speak Japanese, but breaking protocol will reflect negatively on commander Nishizumi._ “{Back to base?}” Walking over to where she had dropped her cute sack of potatoes, Yukari made sure that Erwin wasn't hurt. “She's fine. I'm glad. Commander Nishizumi will be relieved.”

 _I'll pretend I didn't hear that._ _But Maho will be glad too. Communication between our two forces would be a nightmare without Erwin. That's why we went all out to get her back. Thinking about it, it's really dangerous to rely on a single person this much. Albeit the same could be said about our commanders. Still… ugh! This isn't the time, Erika!_ “{Yukari, time to go.}”

“{Understood.}” Putting Erwin back over her right shoulder, Yukari felt like something was not right. “{Where are we?}”

 _Well… we drove pretty long, pretty hard in one direction. I didn't get to check on the motorcycle after I crashed, but I doubt it survived. Even then, it's probably broken after that fall. I must have slid down that slope at least fifteen or twenty meters. It's a miracle I didn't get any more hurt than this. All that training paid off, I'm as tough as a tank now. Half as tough as **she** is, apparently_. _What is she, seriously? Some kind of human weapon that Ooarai produced in secret?_

“{Erika?}” Approaching the Kuromorimine officer, Yukari lowered her voice so that it was difficult for even Erika to hear her.. “Are you hurt?”

Erika shushed her Japanese compatriot and listened. And sure enough, she could hear the extremely faint humming of drone propellers. _How do they always have one of these things nearby?_ Looking in the direction of the slope for a moment, and it was hard to see anything in the darkness, Erika turned back to Yukari. “{The car?}”

“{There.}” Yukari pointed back at where she had come from. “{You drive?}”

 _A kingdom for a dictionary!_ “{Yes.}” _We will never make it back if we go on foot. We must be like twenty kilometers out, at least._ “{You okay?}”

Yukari just nodded. _I'm not totally okay, but fine enough. Although I have to take it easy tomorrow. Maybe ask commander Miho for some time off. A good soldier doesn't just work through the pain, they make sure the pain doesn't work through them. The grit your teeth and ignore the injuries type of soldier that's in every action movie is nonsense._ “{Let's go.}”

Fifteen minutes and a bypassed ignition cable later, the two of them, with an unconscious Erwin in the back, were well on their way of what they believed to be the general direction of their base. The jeep had seen better days and after being pushed fiercely by the kidnappers, **and** getting jumped by Yukari, it was in even worse shape than before. Erika was driving while Yukari was acting as the lookout. They were still cautious of there being an ambush out in the dark.

While the two almost superhuman soldiers were driving through the night, the pursuing force was still far, far behind and not getting any closer. Deep in the night, black smoke was rising into the sky, unseen.

After a hasty departure from the base, Miho and Maho found themselves surprised by what little was left of Tategoto, a different instance of the Japanese military. Six tanks in total, manned by scarcely twenty-five people. But they had been as surprised by the encounter as the Axis was. With Maho and Miho at the helm, even with the small force under their command, they had destroyed Tategoto in a matter of ten minutes. But the encounter had held them up and although they won, they no longer knew in what direction their two best soldiers had gone.

Six survivors from Tategoto were left and because they were both Japanese, Miho could interrogate them. Their commander was already dead, choosing to go down with her crew. “I am asking you nicely. If you refuse to talk to me, I might have to let my sister handle this.” Playing good cop to Maho's ever infamous bad cop, Miho managed to at least scare them.

They knew they were all done for, that there was no reason to fight anymore. Kneeling, sitting cross-legged, crouching, they were all unarmed and under strict guard by Kuromorimine's soldiers. “I can't believe this is how we ended up.” One of them, sitting cross-legged in front of a Panzer II, model F, loudly complained about this turn of events.

“Shut up. We got nothing to say to those alliance making scum!” Another girl, kneeling on the ground, wished she was at least allowed to die an honorable death.

“We already lost, stop whining, Samurai girl,” another one said, this one having been shot in the right arm twice. “Hey, Ooarai.” Directing this at Miho, this girl tried to get on her feet and was immediately forced back down by the Kuromorimine guards. “Easy! I'm trying to talk!”

Miho had a few questions for her, but one superseded all others. “Who gave you the order to attack us at night?” _It's normally madness to attack an enemy with tanks at night, especially in one this dark. Only if you know exactly where they are and what they will be doing would something like that make sense. There is no doubt someone made them do this._

“We don't know. Not exactly anyway.” The same girl answered. “After that trashing we got last time, we wanted to get back at you lot and before we knew it, the commander had gotten a bunch of really nice information from somewhere.”

“Who gave it to her? Did you see anyone? If you did, what language did she speak?” Miho bombarded the girl with questions.

“I've no idea. We didn't actually have a lot of people left to stand guard or anything. I can tell you that whoever gave her the info didn't show up in a tank or any vehicle.” _Maybe they'll let me stick around as a defector if I give them enough info_. _That way Tategoto will score a bit higher._

“Where was your encampment?”

“About thirty kilometers in… uh…” The girl looked around, pointed in one direction, then in another. “It was sector tw-” Her sentence would remain forever unfinished. A sticky liquid splattered from her face, sprinkling on Miho's clothes. Less than a second passed before Miho was pushed to the ground by Nekota and the most dangerous words in war were thrown around.

“Sniper ambush!”

Chaos broke out immediately, with everyone checking the direction the shot had come from – this was easy to tell because unlike hard metal bullets, the ones they shot wouldn't penetrate skin, much less a body or skull. Forming a ring around Miho and then Maho, guns were fired in the general direction of the shot. And then a second sniper shot came, ninety degrees difference to the first, killing the second of the six prisoners, who were now trying to run away. A third shot, a hundred and eight degrees from the second shot, killed the third prisoners.

Maho tried to get control of the situation. “{Into the tanks, now! Leave the prisoners! Cover Ooarai!}” But for every order she gave, one more bullet soared through the air, killing with certainty and precision. _They must have night vision goggles. Tch. That's bad news. We didn't have time to get night warfare gear before we commenced pursuit._

The prisoners were dead in seconds, all six of them. And then the firing continued, killing eight more Kuromorimine girls before those still alive had retreated into the tanks. And still they could hear bullets hitting the front side of the tanks, where the driver's window was, now hastily shut to prevent them from firing in. Erwin was still gone, so communication was severely limited. In this situation, Miho and Maho had to trust each other to know what they were doing. And sure enough, bot of them gave the same order; to sit still. Snipers couldn't do anything against tanks and even if they tried to attack on foot and up close, that was suicide unless they had a hundred people out there. Anti-vehicle weapons such as rocket launchers were not allowed, which meant the tanks provided absolute cover.

Firing at people with tanks in the dark was something neither of them could possibly condone. It was one thing to shoot at each other with guns, another entirely to fire at people with a tank. Sitting in their tanks for a few minutes, it became strangely quiet.

Another three minutes later, the hatch of the tank Miho had sought refuge in opened up and someone came out, wearing the Ooarai uniform. Contrary to Miho's expectations, no shorts were fired. Using a rifle and a uniform to fake a target either didn't fool themor the snipers were gone. While Miho tested the waters with a fake, Maho was not so cautious and sent out a living person – who got out of the tank just fine. “{Clear!}”

Instead of taking the risk of their commanders getting shot at again, only a handful of people left the four tanks the Axis had brought with them to clean up the corpses so the tanks could move. Even though they had skipped preparations and proper loading, they had beaten Tategoto down with relative ease.

Miho however was neither happy about that, nor did she feel accomplished. _Someone is toying with us. The ambush just proves that. They silenced our prisoners instead of taking out Maho or me. Shooting at us was just a means to force us to take cover and for them to get away. So taking us out was never their goal. This was just a distraction to delay us. We played right into their hand, start to finish. I can only hope that Yukari and Erika have exceeded the expectations and contingencies of whoever is toying with us._ A radio message broke Miho's concentration. It was in German but she could tell well enough what it meant.

Directing the Hetzer and Char B1, the two tanks from Ooarai that were fastest when it came to off road speeds, around the corpses, the four tanks got in formation again. There was no way for them to catch up to the kidnappers now; they had to count on Yukari and Erika. It was not until Miho resigned herself to praying for their success that she remembered that the Bellwall commander was out there as well. _It couldn't have been a setup by Bellwall now, could it? Given how unruly they were, and the finesse required for all of this it seems impossible. Sending out their commander like that is unusual though._ “Saori, has there been any word from Bellwall?”

Miho's tank was manned by herself, Saori, Saemonza, Oryou, Nekota and Piyotan, the latter of the two doubling as infantry experts. It was a complete rag-tag group. Of those six, only Saemonza actually belonged into the Hetzer. The other tank, the B1, had Sodoko, Shinobu, Akebi and Taeko in it. The volleyball team minus Noriko.

“Nothing. Do they even have a radio on their motorcycle?” Saori was handling radio operations and really lamenting she didn't at least learn some basic German expressions or military terms.

“I was hoping their commander would have thought far enough ahead to grab a small portable one.” Miho sunk back into the depths of conspiracy thoughts. _How many people- no, not people, armies, are there with this level of tactical finesse?_ _With Tategoto gone and the recent_ _information sale… there is no doubt that Pravda, Chi-Ha-Tan and the Allies were enlisted to get rid of the small countries. A number of things point to Anzio being the cause of all of this, with Carpaccio showing up and giving us information. But.. the manpower required_ _to do all of this. Did Anzio have that many people? More than that, does Anchovy have the tactical talent to pull this off? It makes the most sense that they are behind this, but how? It would make more sense still if it was Darjeeling or Pravda using_ _them, but… no, wait. That would explain how a small army like the Italians stuck around as long as they have. Carpaccio came to us not long ago. Considering Anzio's resources, it makes sense if they are secretly protected._ Miho sighed a little. _Anzio under the control of the allies. All this information they leaked to us… in the end it caused us to suffer damage and take out competition. An alliance so huge… Gloriana, Saunders, Maginot and now Anzio. Darjeeling frightens me, masterminding all of that._

_ How do we even begin to combat that? Pulling Pravda on our side isn't optional any longer – it's mandatory now for us to have a fighting chance. Darjeeling's mind and Kay's fighting spirit behind a force so large. And they have access to Anzio's network- no, wait, could it be that Anzio is playing both sides? According to Maho, the allies didn't look like they were in too good shape when they met yesterday.  We might be able to turn things in our favor by turning Anzio against them. But again- that too could be part of their scheme. I don't have enough information. I don't even know how Anzio obtains all that info or where they have their base. I haven't seen their tanks around since the war began. Do they serve the allies? Are they betraying the allies? Are they affiliated with them at all? Or perhaps with Pravda? Ah, it's driving me insane! This is a thousand times worse than anticipating my opponent's strategy in a straight forward elimination match. _ Her internal struggle continued for a while  and the tanks slowly drove back towards base.

Meanwhile, one idiot and one girl of few words were helplessly lost out in the dark, one of them sitting on the motorcycle, that was just about to have the gas display hit the red E, and the other up in a tree, having the bright idea of trying to scout out the area from higher ground. “{Can't see a damn thing!}”

Down below, Yano was looking to where the loud voice of her commander was coming from. _If she keeps shouting like that, we'll get surrounded by someone. She's like a gorilla in heat._ “{I told you it's a waste of time. Can't even see you.}”

“{I can see you!}” Nakasuga Emi was standing in the crown of a large tree after having climbed up like a monkey. “{But nothing else. How the heck did we lose them?}” Jumping down, landing badly and then landing a second time but with her face first this time. “{Shit. Pffft, grass in my mouth.}”

“{What now?}” Yano still held on to her sniper rifle, albeit she doubted she would need it tonight. _If we can even get back tonight._ “{Return to base?}”

“{Empty handed? Hell no, we **just** got into this whole alliance thingy today and I am not letting our first deed go all _woops, sorry, we lost track of where the enemy went and we came back empty handed, no biggie._ They'll think we're total tools.}”

Yano knew better than to argue with Emi about this. “{So what'cha gonna do?}”

“{We'll go in that direction.}” Emi pointed in the same direction as the motorcycle was pointing. “{No, wait, that.}”

 _Like fifteen degrees to the left. That's...who knows what direction that is. Could be north or south, with the way Emi was driving. I'm amazed we haven't driven off the ship yet._ “{Roger that.}” Waiting for Emi to get back on the bike, Yano was taking the whole ordeal with relative ease. Being in Bellwall, one of the many delinquents, she was used to a lot worse than a wild goose chase on a motorcycle at night.

A minute later, two delinquents were driving through the night, the perfect picture of rebelling girls, minus a bottle of sake and some cigarettes. “{Yo, Yano.}”

“{What?}”

“{You dating anyone?}”

 _Commander, you got a screw loose._ “{Nope.}”

“{Anyone on the crew striking your fancy?}”

 _Why are you talking like a soldier from world war- oh right._ “{Ain't telling.}”

“{You know, I dig tall quiet girls.}”

“{Commander, respectfully, shut the fuck up.}”

“{You're no fun.}”

Driving in silence for a little longer, Emi started back up. “{Seriously, who is it? Who do you like?}” Emi looked over her shoulder. “{Come on.}”

“{Ain't telling.}” Yano was not swaying. _Keep your damn eyes on the road._ For all the rudeness, if Emi would shout _jump_ , Yano would jump without bothering to think about the consequences. But no such thing was necessary for them to run into consequences. No, the consequences came to those two all on their own.

They had been on the road for fifteen minutes after their first stop when the bike came to another halt. And again they were in the middle of nowhere, which seemed to be a recurring trend for everyone out and about that moonless night. They had stopped for seemingly no reason, other than Emi being unsure in what direction to drive. “{End of the road.}”

Yano hopped off the bike, took two steps forward and tried to peer ahead. _Not literally. This plain is going on for a while it looks like. I can't hear any waves either._ “{End of the road how?}”

“{Tank's empty. I guess we'll run on fumes for a few more minutes but then that's it. So before we get any further away from where we used to be, I say we just sit it out and wait for morning. Come here, lemme get some body warmth.}” Emi still sat on the bike and was slapping the part of the seat behind her.

“{Shut up.}” Yano hissed to her.

“{Come on, it's fucking cold out here and-}”

“{Shut up and listen.}” Yano hissed again.

And in the silence of the night, the two of them heard something. An engine. Tires. The rattling of suspension. And it was coming closer. Emi, for all her failings, was not one to goof around when things got serious. Turning off the lights of the bike, jumping down and then throwing the vehicle over so it would look like it was abandoned if someone went to check on it, she joined Yano, both of them flat in the grass, listening to who was coming. Out there in the dark, the chance of meeting enemies was much higher than meeting friendlies.

“{You see anything? Because I can't see shit.}” Emi was curious what or who was out so late at night. The sounds didn't belong to a tank, definitely not, which left rather limited options as to who and what it was.

Staying down in the grass, the two of them spend over a minute in complete silence. After a minute had passed, Yano employed her sniper rifle, the magnifying scope lacking night vision, but it still served the purpose she needed it for. “{Jeep. Few clicks out. Two people at least.} The extreme silence of the battlefield, for there were no animals there, made it possible to hear the loud sounds of a jeep that far in the distance. “{They're in a hurry. Heading that way.}” Nodding towards north-west, as seen from Yano's position, the two girls were gone just moments later.

Running, sprinting almost, in the direction of the jeep, they followed the sounds for as long as they could, right until they arrived at a massive hill, overgrown with plants and trees. They followed the tracks the jeep left, which Emi managed to find in the dark despite all odds by stumbling over a rock and landing face first in the dirt. And said tracks were leading right into the forest, underbrush and all.

“{Some outpost? Meeting place maybe?}” Emi was disappointed Yano couldn't make out more than there being two people in the jeep, like what kind of uniform they wore. “{Too much shit to make a base, they'd have to raze a couple hundred square meters at least and unless this is the back entrance, they're not getting through here with any kind of tank.}”

“{Let's go.}”

“{Hold up, I'm the commander here.}”

“{So what are you gonna do?}”

“{Let's go.}” Emi liked being able to pull rank on others.

Making their way through the green at night was a bit of an adventure by itself. The wind picked up as well, shortly after they entered the forest, causing everything around them to rustle and shake, creating impossibly many sounds, each of them hiding a possible ambush. But Bellwall trained their girls hard. Running into an ambush was nothing special to them.

Twenty minutes into the forest, they were helplessly lost all over. “{I'm gonna pick up astronomy next year.}” Emi kicked a bush and then stepped over it. “{And another dead end. Fantastic.}”

Yano looked down the slope they had climbed. _We must be halfway up the hill now. But at this size, it's almost a tiny mountain. There is no way they drove a jeep all this way. We must have missed something down below._ “{Should we go back?}”

“{Yeah, let's-}” Emi's eyes widened and in an instant she rushed towards Yano, jumping her and pushing her down to the ground. “{Stay down.}”

Down below, about a hundred and fifty meters down the slope, light was coming out of a particularly overgrown stone wall. Without warning, a number of people came out from between the green, stemming away the plants from what was now clearly the entrance to a cave.

“{Holy shit,}” Emiyawhispered to Yano, in awe of the ingenuity of having a hidden base in this place. Watching six people walk out of there, a lot of light was coming out of the cave, Emi and Yano observed that they had three different sets of uniforms – Kuromorimine, Gloriana and one more that neither of them recognized at the time. “{Whatever this is, this is jackpot.}”

“{What now? We have no idea where we actually are.}” Yano was concerned with getting back in one piece to tell everyone else in the Axis about it.

“{We're checking this out.}”

 _She's crazy. She's the boss, but she's crazy._ “{How?}”

“{We're waiting for a little while. They'll let down their guard as soon as those six are gone. We're going to sit tight.}”

But destiny had other plans for them. Both of them felt cold steel pressed in their necks. “{Don't move.}” The warning was in German, signalizing that whoever it was that had them at gunpoint knew exactly who they were or belonged to.

Out of the shadows, out of places that should not have hidden troops, stepped four people, in gray and green uniforms, which both Bellwall girls recognized immediately as being from Anzio, the Italian military. They had only two choices; try to escape and almost certainly get shot to death in an instant, or surrender. That they hadn't shot them on sight meant that they **wanted** them to surrender.

Every instinct of Emi forbade her to surrender, to go out with a fight at least, but with a gun barrel pressed right against her bare neck, there was not a lot that she could do. If she tried to push herself off the ground, at best she'd push the gun away and get shot in the back instead, That wouldn't accomplish anything at all. “{Fine, fine, we give up.}” _Just kidding!_

Rolling over in a flash, Emi just about estimated where the face of her captor was and made her feet connect with the face of the enemy. Using the lift of having her legs in the air and slamming them back on the ground, Emi was back on her feet in an instant and punched the second guard, who was still holding down Yano, right in the face. While the second guard tumbled back and the first was on the ground with a bloody nose, a third had stepped in and hit Emi in the back of her head with the butt of her rifle.

Yano knew better than to join her crazy commander and just stayed down. With a loud thud, Emi, lights out, landed on the dirt ground, her brief rebellion coming to an abrupt but fully anticipated end. Two of the guards started pulling out radios talking into them in Italian. Then, Yano was allowed to get on her feet, after her weapon had been confiscated.

Separated, two guards staying with her and two staying with the unconscious Emi, Yano was lead down the slope to where the cave entrance was. It didn't show on her face, but she was impressed by the interior.

Numerous tanks, far too large to have fit through the entrance she just came in, were parked in the extensive cave that lead her to think a good third of the miniature mountain was hollow inside. The tanks were placed not in any strategic way, just here and there, with immense amounts of crates, equipment and a very large number of tents in-between them. _There's so many tents… they could load twenty people on each of those tanks and still have a bunch left over. I didn't know Anzio had so many people in the tankery club. And more than that…_ Yano noticed at least three dozen girls in uniforms not belonging to Anzio. Saunders. Ooarai. Bellwall even. And some others that she didn't recognize.

Thin and thick cables ran over the stone ground, connecting numerous tents together, seemingly filled with radios, and providing power to standing lamps. With every step she tried to absorb as much information as possible. Passing a particularly large open tent, Yano spotted someone she recognized. _Anzio's commander. What was her name again? An… An... something. Some food thing._

Getting pushed further into the cave, past high stacks of wooden crates and, to her surprise, a dozen food stalls and a very large iron pot, her journey ended inside a tent that was very obviously reserved for the medics. Two girls that looked a little bored were eying her curiously when she was forced in under guard. And then sharp pain ran through her legs when she was suddenly shot from the back, two times, once in each thigh.

 _I see… they're injuring me, then fixing me up so I won't die but can't leave._ While she couldn't understand the rapid Italian one guard spoke and presumably told the medics to help her, the way she said it and the fact that they left her on her knees, unarmed, was easy enough to understand.

The medics helped her up, setting her down on one of the sterilized field beds and made her lie down on her stomach to take a look at the backside of her thighs.“{Some operation you have going here.}” Trying to make a little small talk, so she could learn more about it, Yano chatted up the first medic, a girl with long black hair.

The girl looked at the other medic and they started speaking quickly in Italian, which went completely over Yano's head. _Shit. I don't speak a lick of spaghetti language._ “I know you understand me so-” Yano winced when one of the medics poured some kind of very cold liquid on her skin that felt like it was about to melt her leg off. “{No speak Japanese,}” was the only German either of the medics spoke.

_By the time they're done with me, I'm gonna need crutches. And making a run for it now… well, I'm not gonna limp far. This went a lot worse than I expected. Seriously, what do I do now?_

=== Eisenkreuz Imouto ===

“{You okay?}” Erika looked at Yukari with mild suspicion regarding the _okay_ part. “{You've been carrying her for a while and who knows how much further it is back to base.}” And then she realized that Yukari didn't understand a word she was saying. Just trying to find an easy way to say this with as few words as possible was giving her a headache.

“{Forever fine.}” Yukari saw the look on Erika's face. “{Wrong word? Uh… Evermore fine?}”

 _What the heck does **immerfort** mean? I never heard of that before. Immer… fort… ever something?_ Erika tried to deduce what the word meant and meanwhile Yukari racketed her brain on what the right word was to use in this situation. It ended with both of them starting to chuckle and then laugh as they realized there was no way they'd figure this out on their own. “{Erwin still sleep?}”

“{Still! Still fine!}” Yukari realized that this was the right word. Adjusting her grip on Erwin's legs, she didn't hear anything from her. “{Still sleep.}”

The jeep had broken down a few kilometers back and now they were walking. Yukari carried Erwin on her back while Erika was carrying a rucksack filled with whatever supplies had been in the vehicle, as well as an assault rifle with half a magazine.

Sitting in the jeep and waiting had not been an option for either of them. Walking was tiresome, but the sun had to come up relatively soon and then it would be much easier to navigate the wilderness. The conversation problem wasn't one they could solve on their own, so they mostly saved their breath. Even if a drone wasn't ever so slowly following them around, they wouldn't have broken the rules. Who knew, maybe someday in the future, there would be world championships like this and then there was no _pretending_ regarding a language barrier.

But saving your breath was only practical for so long before boredom started to kill you. So eventually, Erika started teaching individual words of German to Yukari by pointing at things and saying their name in German. When it came to describing the human body, they needed a break because Erika somehow knew **six** words for _Breasts_ in German, one funnier than the other.

While those two were taking it easy, the rest of the Axis was just about on the edge of dropping dead from exhaustion. Getting all the tanks back into defensive formation, assessing losses, and realizing that the document theft had been a distraction to kidnap Erwin which by itself had been another distraction to sneak back in and steal almost all of the important documents that Miho and Maho had kept in their tent. And it got worse. Information had somehow spread that Chi-Ha-Tan was responsible for all of this after teaming up with Pravda, who was apparently playing everyone.

Miho and Maho didn't even try to hide how exhausted they were. Eventually, it was Alice who pushed both of them out of active duties and took over general command over the two bases for the rest of the night. They were barely two minutes in their tent and already fast asleep, fully clothed, just completely over the edge.

But not everyone was afforded the luxury of sleep after such a turbulent day. Night. Both. “Lemme just die… please… lemme die...” Mako groaned and moaned and lamented and would not stop even after Sodoko yelled at her. Maneuvering the tanks into the exact gaps between crates and tents was difficult and even more so in the twilight of the night and base lights. So they just dumped it all on Mako, who, among the four top drivers across the two armies, was the slowest to say _Not me_.

And it was not her alone that was suffering. The Anteater team was used like pack mules because of their superior fitness that was second only to the super soldiers, Erika and Yukari. Carrying around crates, and equipment to reinforce security and change the base layout. Nekota, the tall blonde of the team, was just now, at four thirty in the morning, carrying two munitions crates from point A to B because someone said so. Piyotanand Momoga were by her side, doing the same thing as her.

“This is worse than grinding to platinum rank in WoT ranked right after a reset on Monday.” Momoga, the short one of the group, both in hairstyle and height, could barely see over the two crates she carried. “And all of this **after** we went out in the middle of the night.”

“I'm going to lock myself in the club room and game for a week straight after this.” Piyota, the gray haired gunner and sniper of the Anteaters, was really looking forward to just doing some good old sitting around.

“The event is going for another ten days. I hope we won by then.” Nekota really wanted the limited edition event-only skin.

“Or lost.” Momoga felt both of the others give her a bad look. “I don't **want** us to lose. I just don't want this to turn into one of those civilization games where two big powers just shout angrily at each other for a while and nothing happens.”

“Ah, I know what you mean. Both civilizations build a big army and then just rack up war penalties for being at war for too long.” Nekota was no stranger to turn based strategy games.

“It's like we are in a total war game.” Piyotanput down the crate when they reached the target location. Sitting down on top of it, legs dangling a few centimeters in the air, she felt worn out. “You think they should have put a time limit on this whole thing?”

“If they just ended it, how would they determine the winner?” Momoga put her crate down as well and sat next to Piyota.

“Tanks trashed?”

“Kuromorimine goes super aggressive, loses everything but one tank and then just hides out the rest of the tournament because they now have this insanely high score. They'd also end up with a scenario where everyone would be focusing on the little armies.” Nekota, leaving her crate on the ground, remained standing, leaning against a tall pile of wooden boxes. “Some kind of sudden death might not be bad though.”

“How would they implement that?” Momoga couldn't imagine how that would work.

“Any shot becomes deadly? Hm… I didn't really think that through.” Nekota looked up at the dark sky, trying to come up with something. All three of them thought about it for a minute but none of them came up with a good solution to that problem.

“You know that new multiplayer FPS game? What's the name… something unknown battleground. They just make the area smaller and smaller as time passes.” Momoga didn't play it, but it was hard to not hear about the latest gaming trends.

“If you just add that to the rules, it'll end up causing a lot of ambushes you can't escape from.” Nekota saw one of the issues with that option.

“So you don't announce when it happens.”

“How is anyone supposed to know when to leave then?”

“Ah, true. So only notify those in that area? Piyota, what do- hey.” Momoga looked at the really tall girl by her side and found her to be asleep, slightly hunched over and lightly bobbing up and down. Poking her twice had the desired effect and woke her up.

“No, no, take the other way around, we'll cut them off at the hill… huh?” Piyotanyawned without regard of who could see her mouth wide open. “Can't we go to sleep yet?”

 _You were asleep just now_ , Nekota thought but was in full agreement. “Let's bolt.”

“If this was WoT we would get a penalty for leaving,” Momoga said with a smirk. “But no all-seeing eye here, so let's make a run for it.”

That sentiment was shared by a lot of people. Luckily, work was largely done and the few poor souls that had to remain awake had been scheduled for night duty anyway and had slept through part of the day. Night passed into day in a matter of hours, and it was in these early hours of the morning that Erwin regained consciousness, in company of a headache that was record breaking.

She was lying in the center of half a dozen large rocks, somewhat hidden from the casual observer. To her right, leaned against one of the gray rocks rock, was Yukari, fast asleep, legs outstretched, arms crossed and head hanging down.

“{Morning.}” The German greeting was accompanied by a loud yawn, to Erwin's left. “{You feel okay?}”

 _German first thing in the morning. I must have died and gone to hell._ “{After four aspirin and a strong coffee, I will be.}” And after a brief break consisting of looking at Erika with the gun in her arms, in the same position as Yukari and appearing pretty tired out herself, Erwin got on her feet and tried to guess what time it was. “{Still early morning?}”

“{Good guess. We stopped when we had no idea where we were actually going. Lucky for us, this place was pretty close when we went looking for a place to wait for sunrise.}” Erika yawned and wished she hadn't offered to take the guard duty. _But I guess she had to be even more tired than me._

“{This is pretty cliché but what exactly happened? I was out all night apparently and this is the middle of nowhere. Did the base get attacked?}” Erwin felt the back of her head and flinched a little when she touched upon a bump. _Holy shit they hit me hard._

“{They kidnapped you and staged a theft to use a distraction. Yukari and I caught on and pursued the kidnappers. We caught them but ran out of gas on the way back. You should have seen this girl there. She's like Rambo.}”

“{Rambo, eh?}” Erwin was impressed by all of this. “{Thanks for having my back.}”

“{You should thank her more than me. The crazy stunts she pulled were, well, crazy. Sorry, tired.}”

“{What kind of crazy stunts?}” _Yukari tried that hard to rescue me?_ Imagining this made Erwin's heart beat faster. She wasn't over her crush on Yukari yet and this was making it hard to even **try** to get over it.

“{Jumping off a motorcycle, on an enemy vehicle. I didn't really see what happened next but she must have somehow overwhelmed two people, stopped a jeep and well, she carried you the entire time after we went on foot. I think maybe she's got a crush on you.}” Joking about it, Erika was too tired to see how obviously nervous Erwin got after that story. “{Do me a favor and wake her up. And it's nice to finally be able to talk to someone again.}” Erika was usually not this chatty, especially not with someone from another nation. But after spending all night with Yukari, who barely understand any complete sentences, she really felt like talking. _Keeps me awake, too._

“{I guess that's why you two came after me. Because there would be no one to translate without me.}” Kneeling down next to Yukari, Erwin suddenly felt more nervous than during the match against selection university. “Hey, Yukari, wake up.” Slapping her shoulder twice, Erwin slowly gasped. _Wow… she's pure muscle. It's like I'm hitting the rock._ “Yu-ka-ri. Wake up.” And still nothing. “ **Yukari! At attention!** ” And finally.

Jumping like an entire bee hive had stung her, Yukari landed right on her feet and knocked Erwin over in the process. “Captain Akiyama at your-?” Yukari felt the brief rush of adrenaline wash away in an instant when she saw Erwin still down.

The short haired blonde was flat on her back, head resting on Erika's shins. “Remind me to never do that again while I'm kneeling in front of you.”

“Erwin, are you okay?” Yukari suppressed a yawn and sat down diagonally adjacent of Erika. “How is your head?”

“Barely feel anything. From what I heard you must be hurting all over though. And thanks for rescuing me. I could have escaped from wherever they were taking me but I guess you saved me the trouble.”

“Combat is harder than last night. And Miho needs you.” Yukari didn't notice that Erwin's expression turned a bit sour when she mentioned their commander. “I'll go take a look at things.” Climbing the nearest rock, about a meter and a half high. And she was barely up there for five seconds when she jumped down with an expression that could be summarized in just one word – urgency.

Erika, tired or not, recognized that look immediately and was on her feet even before Yukari opened her mouth, talking to Erwin who quickly translated for Erika to maintain official rules. The three of them squeezed themselves past the rocks and made their way in a specific direction, even though they didn't know where exactly they were going.

They weren't just _going_ but running. Not towards, but away from something. It was still hard to make out in the distance, but what Yukari had seen on the horizon was a horizontal line of dust and death approaching them line a single lane of destruction.

“{We're never gonna out-run a bunch of tanks!}” Erika had sat around but not actually slept. Her legs were heavy and her breath ragged right after they had started running. “{I can't tell what nation they're from or how many there are.}” Looking slightly over her shoulder was proving to be difficult while maintaining a high speed.

Erwin couldn't be arsed to translate for Yukari and took a look herself. “{Looks like at least fifty, maybe more. Probably the allies.}”

“{Look around you.}” Erika hadn't paid much attention to the environment until now either, but there was one very clear indicator as to where they were. Tropical trees and plants, almost as if they were in the southern-most part of Japan. It was unusually warm now that they were out in the sun and now in the shadows of the rocks, too. “{We're probably at the southern edge. We went in the wrong direction after we got you back!}”

“Less talking, more running!” Yukari didn't understand a word of what they were talking about and she didn't need to. They had to get out of there and there was only one way to go – directly away from the approaching army.

But they were on foot. Despite the terrain giving them an advantage, lush grass and soft ground that would prove treacherous to tanks that were too heavy, the distance between them was closing. Seven minutes of running hard towards a tropical forest in the far distance until one of them stopped, Erika, unable to power through the sheer exhaustion she was battling. _I never… thought war would be… this stressful_.

Erwin whistled for Yukari, who was a few meters ahead and stopped as well. “{We've got to be in sniper range by now. Why haven't they fired on us?}” About two clicks out, the tanks were rolling closer, now slowed down significantly by dangerous ground. “{More importantly, what kind of army this size is camped out this far south? Chi-Ha-Tan?}”

“{N-No. T-That's not Chi-Ha-Tan...}” Erika was out of breath and couldn't take another step. “{Look at the tanks. It's all… German models...}”

Erwin squinted as hard as she could, focusing on the tanks right on collision course with them. _She's right. That's a Hetzer. And that too. A whole bunch of them. But that's not Kuromorimine or Bellwall, so who- doesn't matter. We need to get out of here._ “Yukari, can you carry h-?”

Yukari was already ahead of the girl that had a crush on her. Shoving all of her meager belongings on Erwin, she picked up Erika, who felt twice as heavy as Erwin due to all the muscle. “Go!”

Running until their lungs were on fire, the back of their throats were scorched, their legs like lead – they could not leave the unknown army behind them, not until they made it far into the forest, looking back out and finding that the tanks had stopped just a hundred meters out from the rest. Erwin fell on her butt from relief on the spot, onto the damp earth. It was getting hotter now, a lot hotter, and they had been running for the better part of twenty minutes. _Any more… and I'll throw up whatever is left inside._ “Why… why did they stop?”

Erika, dropped to the ground by Yukari who was too out of breath to even think about talking, tried to recall everything she knew about this area. _We're in the southern most sector_ _and_ _I remember most of the map._ _Five or ten clicks north of this forest should be a river. There is no way they can drive through that so they'll have to go around. That means at least a detour of two or three hours, given the terrain. If we head straight for the river and swim… can we swim through it in the first place? Before that, this army…_ “{Do we have some binoculars?}”

Erwin gestured to Yukari, who shook her head. “{Doesn't look like it.}”

“{Shit.}” _There is no way I'll be able to tell who they are without binoculars or getting close. And getting close to that doesn't seem like a good idea._ “{I don't think this is any regular army.}”

“{Huh? What do you mean, _regular_? Reinforcements for Bellwall or something?}”

“{No, I think it's the pro league.}”

“{For what purpose would they allow pro league armies to enter the battlefield? There is almost no way we can win against them. They have years of experience and practice on us. We just **barely** won against the college team, never mind professionals.}” Erwin had caught her breath enough to continue but she wanted to spend a few more minutes while the tanks weren't advancing.

“{I don't have an explanation for that. But who else would it be? There is no way enough battle ready college level participants are on board. And there is something off about the way they're advancing in a straight horizontal line. It's like they are making sure nobody gets past them. Like some sort of goal line of death.}”

“{You have some funny analogies. I've no idea what the purpose of that would be other than drive whoever is down here up north. Maybe they had an accident down there and don't want anyone to go there. So they saw us three get all the way down here and figured they'd send out a bunch of tanks to keep us away.}”

“What are you two talking about?” Yukari couldn't follow the conversation at all.

“Why the tanks are there, who they are and what they are doing.”

“We need to tell commander Miho about this.”

 _Miho, Miho, Miho, is that all that goes through your head?_ Erwin was a little pissed off about Yukari's chain of thought but she didn't take it out on her. “{How did we get this far from the base anyway?}”

“{The kidnappers must have driven south. Then we probably drove south by accident and walked south. In hindsight, we should get a compass.}”

“{Why even kidnap me instead of just shooting me?}” Erwin couldn't figure out so many things it was driving her nuts. “{There are way too many questions here and not enough answers.}”

“{Answers will have to wait. Look.}” Erika pointed towards the absolute line of death – people were pouring out of them. Most of them too tall and moving too organized to be mistaken for teens or even later teens. “{That is definitely the pro league. And they're sweeping.}”

“{We better get out of here then.}” Erwin got back on her feet and helped up Yukari. “We gotta go.”

=== Eisenkreuz Imouto ===

With their aides and translator still gone, Miho and Maho were enjoying a very slow morning, just the two of them. The almost empty tent seemed strangely spacious now. “This has turned into really something.” Miho was lying sideways on the field bed, her head resting on Maho's left shoulder, the older girl plain on her back and ruffling Miho's hair slowly and gently, almost as if it was hypnotic for her.

“I'm worried about Erika. If she came back, she would have reported to me.”

“No worrying about Yukari and Erwin?” Miho held Maho's free hand between both of her own under the blanket, rubbing her sister's fingers with her thumbs.

“That's your job.”

“I'm worried about Erika too, you know.”

“Worrywart.”

“Ice queen.”

“What would Kay from Saunders say in a situation like this?”

“Don't become a punster, sis.”

“As you wish.”

“I kinda wish we could finish this war soon so we can go home. Sneaking around under everyone's nose is really… I don't like it.”

“We're not as lucky as others. We're blessed that our love for each other is reciprocated.”

“Using big words for saying we love each other, are we?” Kissing Maho on the cheek right after she said that, Miho closed her eyes. _I hope I don't have to get up for another six hours._

“I mean, it's a small miracle we do like each other. That we can't be open about it like some of the girls under our command is a small price to pay.”

“I wanna be greedy and not pay any price.”

“That's not how the world works.”

“The world is stupid.”

“You sound like a spoiled little girl, Miho.”

“I want my big sis to spoil me.”

“The prodigy commander wishes to be spoiled?”

“I'm just your little sis when we're alone.”

“You sound like a character out of a cheesy novel.”

“You're not allowed to say that, miss pretends to be super hard boiled.”

“I don't think you're using hard boiled the right way.”

“You're definitely hard something.”

“I am still softer than you.”

“Are you bragging about your boobs? They're not **that** big.”

“Do you want me to compare yours to Alice?”

“You wouldn't!”

“I would.”

“And how do you know what size hers are?”

“Communal bath.”

“Alice bathes with everyone?!”

“Why are you reacting like that?”

“It's just… she looks like the shy type.”

“Does she?”

“Okay, that's unfair, you've had way more time to get to know!”

“She sees you as her rival, you know?”

“Rival?”

“Ever since she turned down the chance to go to Ooarai she's been wanting to fight you again.”

“Yeah I remember her saying that.”

“But she also wanted to fight by your side. I would be jealous if I didn't know that a tiny girl like her is not your type.”

“So what is my type? A chatterbox that barely opens her mouth when she's around other people?”

“Now you're just being mean.”

“Am not.”

“You are.”

“Not.”

“Ar-” Maho couldn't help but laugh when Miho puffed up her cheeks. “Making faces is cheating.”

“It doesn't fit at all, you saying all those things with your voice.”

“I can't help it. I take after mother.”

“In more than one way.”

“I am **not** internalizing all my feelings and thoughts.”

Miho chuckled and squeezed her sister's hand. “She does that a lot. I wonder if she was like that as a girl.”

“We could ask Alice's mother.”

“Would she even talk to us?”

“Alice asked me a lot of questions about mother on her behalf. She probably still holds on to old grudges.”

“What kind of questions?”

“How often father is at home, whether she has any friends she spends time with, her hobbies – I am sure she is going to gloat the next time they meet. I regret telling her all about mother now.”

“I won't tell if you don't.”

“That sounds good to me.”

“Thinking about it… I don't know that much about mom.”

“Come home for a few days after all of this is over. She won't show it, but I know she'll be happy.”

“And you?”

“I wonder.”

“Meanie.”

“You just want to hear me say it.”

“So? I can act a little spoiled when we're alone, right?”

“A little?”

“Okay, a lot.”

“It makes me happy that you can act like this around me.”

“I don't mind being who I am around my friends at Ooarai. It's who I am. But if I can get away with being a little bit spoiled when it's just us two, I will.”

“A _little_ bit spoiled.”

“Geez, you won't let that go.”

“Teasing you is my birth right as the older sister.”

“Bully.”

“Only a _little_ bit of a bully.”

“I see what you're doing.”

“Turning your hair into a mess?”

“I… don't mind that.”

“I wouldn't stop even if you said you did.”

“What are we gonna do this situation?”

“We can't tell mother. She would lecture us for a month straight if she knew we were sleeping together.”

“I meant the stolen documents… you're worse than Saori.”

“Which one is Saori?”

“My radio operator.”

“Miho, I don't see inside your tanks.”

“The ginger.”

“The short stack?”

“It's just wrong if you say that.”

“She's bigger than you at least.”

“Don't eye my subordinates like that.”

“Too late.”

“You better not think that any of them are cuter than me.”

“Cuter, no.”

“But?”

“There are a few that definitely beat you out in sexiness.”

“I think I am going to sleep in another tent tonight.”

Maho didn't say anything for a few seconds. “S-Sorry. I do prefer cute girls over sexy ones.”

Turning over and looking up a little, Miho smirked. “Did you get cold feet I was mad?”

“A Nishizumi does not get cold feet.”

Miho dove under the blanket and squeezed Maho's feet with her hands. “They're definitely cold!”

Following her little sister under the cover, Maho put her in her arms. “Careful, someone might hear you.”

“You can cover for me, right?” Miho didn't need to turn much to kiss her sister. A playful, short kiss that was more amusement than anything else. “I am not leaving this tent for another hour at least.”

“In that case-” With her arms tightly wrapped around her little sister, Maho dragged her down with her. “We're gonna stay like this for a while.”

And just that once, fate was kind to them, letting them be, without interruption or emergency.

=== Panzer Halt ===


	7. Chapter 7

The early morning sun was shining between the hills now, lighting up the barricade made of tanks, the mounted guns and the people that sat behind them, cold and tired from the long night. One of them was Saori, who was particularly tired and sick of being a base guard. It was both boring and mentally exhausting at the same time. _Just thirty more minutes and I am free_.

This was hours before the day became tumultuous and beyond anyone's control.

Hearing steps approach behind her, Saori turned around carefully so to not throw off the warmth providing blanket that all border guards had available to them to starve off the cold of the night. There were a number of people it could have been. An early relief from duty, someone from higher up the command structure to give her new orders or one of the mechanics, who worked around the clock and liked to take their breaks in the company of the guards; to talk to someone that wasn't covered in oil and grease. But it was none of the above.

Hana had gotten up early and joined Saori, sitting not just by her side but slipping beneath the blanket, that now barely covered the two of them instead of offering plentiful space to move. “Here. Satoko and Hoshino used one of the excess engines to make some hot coffee for the early birds.” Handing a small metal cup to her girlfriend, Hana used her now free left hand to pull Saori closer, her arm going around Saori's back and her hand resting soundly on Saori's left hip. “Nothing to report?” Hana carried another cup for herself, white steam still rising from the cheap instant brew. But out there on the battlefield, instant coffee was still a scarce resource. Both she and Saori were more of the tea drinking type, but tea was in such high demand that coffee was almost readily available compared.

“Thanks.” Lightly blowing on the surface of the black liquid, Saori breathed a sigh of relief. “After we got back, nothing else happened. Bellwall was still bustling and hustling until two or three hours ago. Who knows what they are doing.”

Looking to her right, Hana saw that she wasn't the only girlfriend that brought coffee to their exhausted other half. _I'm glad I decided to be brave and make a move. There are so many couples forming now that I fear someone might have taken Saori from me._ _She's quite beautiful and kind, so there must be a number of girls out there that were eying her._ “I'm sorry we don't have sugar.”

Saori herself had gotten the hang of her new situation with impressive speed, at least everyone that viewed her new relationship from the outside thought so. But deep down, she was just gently pushing dealing with it off. For now, she was fine cuddling, holding hands and even kissing Hana, but anything further than that would fluster her well beyond the capacity limit of her coping mechanism. The realization that she was just as interested in girls as everyone around her had come like a big _ohh_ moment to as she thought back about all the times she felt strangely captivated by the other girls when it was time to change clothes.

Right now, Saori lived by a very simple principle; _I'll deal with it later. Later! When everything has calmed down!_ And for the time being, it worked, partially because Hana was very traditional and didn't ever so much as tempt Saori into going beyond a kiss or some close bodily contact.

Leaning her head against Hana's shoulder, Saori kept blowing on the coffee so she wouldn't burn her tongue. “Sleep well?”

“I could hear the volleyball team from two tents over for a while.” Hana could in no way say that without blushing. “They are very passionate individuals.”

“Jeez, what are you talking about so early in the morning?” Despite her complaint, Saori remained leaned against Hana, finally trying the coffee and finding it both way too strong, too bitter and a bit gross all at the same time. But it filled her stomach with heat and it would provide a bit of a pick me up before her shift was over and she could turn in for about four to six hours unless another emergency rallied everyone. “How is Miporin doing?”

“Not up yet. Neither is Kuromorimine|s commander. I think they are just exhausted after the events of last night.” Hana sipped on her own coffee and immediately burned her tongue and stuck it out. “Ow.”

Letting out a long yawn, Saori leaned even more against Hana. _I'm glad I'm a bit shorter than her._ “I just wanna go home when I think about having to stay up most of the night for another week or however long this is going to take.”

“If you keep that up, you will sound like Mako soon. _Let me sleep_. _It's too early. I'm tired. Sodoko~._ ”

“I sound nothing like Mako!” Puffing up her cheeks in defiant protest, Saori remained perfectly still, watching the steam from her coffee mug with great intensity. “Your voice sounds more like Mako than I do.”

“Do I?” Hana was not so easily rattled. “I will have to be careful then.”

Spending a few minutes in silence, Saori's willpower broke first. “It's so peaceful now… you wouldn't think there might be a battle to the death going on somewhere out there.”

“They must not have any Makos in their midst if they can fight that early in the morning.”

“Jeez, will you stop bringing up Mako already.”

“She left quite the impression with the other drivers. They were asking her questions even after she finished her work last night. Her expression looked like that of an ogre.”

“I should tell Mako on you.”

“Are you going to desert your post?”

Grumbling and mumbling under her breath, Saori focused more on her coffee. “Do we know what Miporin is gonna do next? I heard we were had pretty good last night.”

“I think she is going to contemplate that as soon as she wakes up.”

Sipping one her coffee again, Saori felt a little less tired by now. _Having Hana here helps more than the coffee does_. “My hair ends are in terrible condition already...” Playing with a strand of her light ginger hair, Saori looked dejected for a moment. “This war is dragging on...”

“The Americans, British and French are such a big force now that we had to join forces with the Germans, making us an equal force. And when that many soldiers are on the line, things move a lot more slowly. I'm just glad we do not have to spread ourselves thin protecting supply lines and national borders.”

“We still have to go out and search for supply crates.” Saori had been on those searches twice already and they were just as mind numbingly boring yet tense as standing guard was. “We haven't really fought anything in days.”

“My, I didn't know you were such a battle maniac, Saori.”

Instead of responding her usual way, Saori glanced at Hana from the side with a really annoyed expression. “At least you get to shoot at people. All I get is having six people shout into my ears all at once.”

“Are you still angry about that?”

“I'm not angry,” Saori said in the most obviously passive-aggressive way one could imagine.

“I am sure the rabbit team is sorry about that.”

“At least it didn't happen when we were deployed with Kuromorimine. We would have looked like amateurs.”

“They do have impressive discipline. It is almost strange, comparing Bellwall and Kuromorimine, considering they are both of German nationality.”

“Makes sense that if one side is super disciplined that the other side is really wild.”

“When we returned to base last night, I heard some of the girls from Bellwall talk about you.”

“W-What were they saying?”

“I'm afraid I didn't catch much of what they discussed.”

“Were you always such a tease?”

“My, I am certainly not teasing you. It is simply a matter of fact that I didn't overhear much of what they said. Merely that they were talking about the prettiest girl in the Japanese army and-”

“Ah! You liar! They had to have been talking in German! There is no way you could have overheard them!”

“How astute of you. I am sure they were talking about that however. I did hear one of them say your name.”

“They could have been saying how my hair is terrible looking!” Trying to stand up, she realized too late she didn't have full control over her legs and spilled coffee over her hand. “Hot, hot, hot!”

With Hana and Saori going about an odd morning routine, the rest of the base was waking up, one by one. Moral was at an all time low and the late rising of Maho and Miho didn't do much to improve that. And when they finally left their tent, the two commanders were bombarded immediately with damage and casualty reports, with demands for orders and questions regarding the attack the last night.

It was ten forty-five, and the night shift was getting some much needed Zs now, when Miho and Maho caught their first break and found time to eat something. While Maho was shoveling dry cereal into her mouth with a large spoon and looking over newly manufactured inventory reports, which had been produced over night by the hard working accountants of Kuromorimine. That was not so much to realize what was gone, as that would require old records, but to know what was there.

Miho was resting her forehead on the table, on top of a pile of papers, feeling like she shouldn't have gotten up that morning. It especially hurt that she couldn't be affectionate with Maho in public, like any other couple could. She knew that would be the case, she knew it would always be the case, and still, until it became a reality instead of being a hypothetical, she hadn't realized just how much it would bother her. _Sometimes_ _I wish I could just go overseas with Maho and pretend we're a normal couple._ “Maho… are we gonna be doing this all day?” And right after saying that out loud, she realized the language barrier stopped her sister from responding.

Instead of an actual response, Maho shoved the dish with crackers and preserved sausage to Miho. “{Eat.}” She didn't bother to say a lot since Erwin was still gone and nobody could really translate. In general, communication between the two armies had largely broken down and it made them realize just how absolutely important translators were.

For some of the soldiers from Kuromorimine, who had been used to German for a while now, hearing Japanese almost let them just tune out the actual words, generating a real and live language barrier. Maho was not among them, but she was much better than the average soldier at pretending she didn't hear anything.

If she could have talked to her little sister, she would have found out that she was thinking much the same thing as Miho. _I am the commander of Kuromorimine, the Black Forest, and yet here I am shuffling papers like an office worker. I must properly direct the second years so that a much clearer and more distinct bureaucratic hierarchy exists when this war is repeated next year. But I must not show how incredibly much I tire of this paperwork. Miho is counting on me. Everyone else, too._

=== Eisenkreuz Imouto ===

“{Hey. Yano.}”

Nakasuga Emi and her sharpshooting buddy Yano had gotten themselves caught, escorted and locked up tight. Not **too** tight, considering they were basically just confined to a part of the cave sealed off by tanks, tents, crates and four armed guards – of which only three did their job.

“{Fucking answer when I'm talking to you Yano!}” Emi had been shot in the legs, but it was nothing she couldn't tough out if push came to shove. Bandages were covering the wounds and even she understood when the medic was gesturing the bullet had gone through and through.

“{Your commander is kinda scary.}”

The situation was, in few words, messed up really badly. In many more words, Nakasuga Emi was sitting on a crate, with her legs crossed and showcasing her panties to three somewhat embarrassed Finnish guards. The fourth guard was from Anzio – a brunette whose hair was tied into a messy ponytail. Like many of the girls at Anzio, she had a tick that made her easily recognizable even by enemy combatants – hers was the habit to respond to everything with “ _Si_ ” and sometimes “ _Si, si_ ”. And said girl was currently hanging her arms around Yano's neck, sitting on her lap and making bedroom eyes at her newly acquired crush, much to Emi's dismay.

And to further her dismay, Yano was completely ignoring her commanding and publicly flirting with the Italian guard. “{She's just loud. I could easily take her in a fight.}” Yano's face lit up like a stoplight when the Italian girl, who Yano had curiously dubbed Siko in her mind, kissed her on the cheek, squeezing her not insignificantly sized breasts tightly against Yano's arm.

“{Yeah right! I'd mop the floor with you! Just wait until we're out of here!}” Grumbling and hissing, Emi was incredibly annoyed over a lot of things. Getting caught, getting imprisoned and that stupid Finnish girl smirking at her like she was some dumbass from way out in the boonies.

“{You must be a really successful searcher if you found our hiding place. And you're a sniper, si? So you have very good eyes, si?}” Siko spoke decent German, but not at a level where her sentences weren't rich with ill-fitting synonyms here and there. “{I love long hair. You ever think about carrying ponytail? I think it would look much good, si?}”

Reaching for the back of her head, Yano threw Siko off just in time to dodge a blow from Emi, who threw caution to the wind and jumped her comrade without hesitation. “{You think you're Golgo or something?!}” Both of them crashed to the ground, rolling around on the hard stone until they finally came to a stop, with Yano on top, hesitating not a second to punch her commander in the face, not just once, but twice. And the third punch would have landed too if Emi didn't bolt upwards, headbutting Yano and causing her to stagger off her. Kicking, literally, Yano's ass, Emi pulled on her hair to make Yano face up, puching her in the face.

Ramming her fist into Emi's stomach and getting her to back off, Yano got on her feet and spat a little bit of blood. “{You've gone soft, Emi.}”

“{You hit like a girl!}”

“{You monkey faced runt, I am a girl.}” Yano clicked her tongue.

“{Sure could have fooled me. What? Nobody would bat a fucking eye if you took a piss standing up.}” Emi knew exactly what to say to rile up Yano.

“{At least I ain't got bullshit coming out of my fucking mouth.}”

“{You have a death wish or something?! You forget who gives the orders around here, huh?}”

“{Look where your crappy orders got us!}”

Siko had just been standing by, looking back and forth between the two girls. “{Now, now, please calm bottom. We all are friendly here, si?}” Taking a step towards Yano, Siko was swept off her feet by the tall girl, turned around and held hostage. At the same time, Emi jumped one of the guards that had been paying attention to the ruckus and disarmed her by literally punching her lights out. Throwing the gun to Yano, Emi suddenly felt the cold nuzzle of a full automatic rifle against her forehead.

“{Drop your weapon!}” Yano shouted and hoped the damn guard understood her. But the guard didn't react to the command and instead kept Emi at gunpoint, who was suddenly a lot less eager to bounce around than before. “{You, translate.}”

Speaking in fluent Italian to her fellow guard, Siko got her to lower her gun and within a second, Emi and Yano made a run for it – dragging Siko along as insurance. They got almost fifteen meters away from the tent before the alarms went off – Italian and then Finnish shouting and some kind of handmade siren that was unbelievably obnoxious.

Despite their mad dash – and Yano could dash at full power all the while carrying Siko like a shield – they only got a third through the cave before they were surrounded by Finnish forces, who didn't seem very likely to care about one Italian casualty. Siko shouted something at them in Finnish, which sounded like complete gibberish to Emi and Yano, and to the surprise of the two Germans, they slowly backed off.

Moving quickly past the first barricade of soldiers, Yano couldn't help but ask. “{You, what did you tell them?}”

“{I tell them I on secret mission. But I like Yano! I wish to defect, si!}” Looking kinda happy to be dragged around by Yano, Siko still didn't manage to get her feet on the ground. _She's so strong. Are all Germans just muscle heads?_

“{I am definitely punching you in the face for that, Yano.}” Grabbing a handgun that she happened to see abandoned on a crate, Emi. “{This is the **exact** same shit that happened when we went on that trip and you were seducing that shrine maiden with that stupid tall look of yours!}”

“{Not my fault you're a shrimp.}” While Yano didn't talk much normally, her tongue was quite loose when it came to spewing obscene or angry things. “{No girl wants a dwarf like you, get over it.}”

Aching to stop and kick Yano's ass, this time metaphorically and literally both, Emi held on and kept running. “{You're gonna fucking scrub the bathroom when we get back! With your tongue!}”

“{Try and make me.}” _There is no way I am taking this girl with me. She says she wants to defect, but… well, she doesn't seem like a liar, but trusting some random Italian girl sounds totally dangerous. Tho, Germany and Italy are supposed to be allies, si? Shit, now I'm saying it too. It's contagious. Ah, screw it, I'll just knock her out or something so she won't know where we're going. I haven't gotten laid in weeks thanks to Emi's retarded training menu._

“{I'll fucking make you!}” _Why are all the guards just making threatening gestures? Are they so chicken that they're scared of killing one of their own? Hell, they're not even taking shots at me and I'm a couple meters ahead of Yano. Chickens, man. No wonder they're hiding out here. Booooook, book, book, book!_ “{I can see the exit! Just drop her already, what the hell is wrong with you?}”

“{Why don't I drop you instead? Would make a great distraction.}” Yano was not going to let go of Siko unless she absolutely had to. It had very little to do with Siko herself, but sticking it to Emi was just a favorite past time of the entire tankery team. Push came to shove, they would all take a bullet for her, but when push wasn't shoving, they'd act however they wanted.

Firing randomly at the guards that were mounting a final defense at the entrance, Emi got them to jump out of the way like headless chickens. And with one Italian captive, the top brass of Bellwall broke right through the entrance and into freedom – only to immediately get blinded by the sun, stumble, crash and start a devastating sequence of rolling, falling, swearing and getting dirt in every possible orifice available.

“Mio dio, tu sei senza speranza!” Cursing about how horrible the two from Bellwall were, Siko pulled a twig out of her hair and looked up at where the entrance to their hidden base was. “Ci dobbiamo sbrigare!” Clicking her tongue, Siko switched gears. “Hurry!”

“{Who the hell do you think you're telling that, huh?}” Getting back on her feet and firing twice at the general direction of the entrance, Emi looked around and couldn't see any vehicle to steal. _Shit. I didn't think they'd have_ _ **nothing**_ _out here._ “{Hey, pasta girl! Where can we get a ride?}”

“{I'm not pasta girl! I'm-}”

“{I ain't gonna repeat myself!}”

“{Emergency car behind hill. Hidden with green.}” Siko lost her breath when Yano just picked her up, making a dash for the back of the hill.

While all of this was going on, Mika was abrasively arguing with Anchovy. “{I still retain the opinion that it would have been much easier to coerce the information out of them through torture.}”

“{And I keep telling you, it's **Bellwall**. They beat each other up for fun! You could fake having a bunch of them in captivity and shoot them or try to beat it out of them, they'd never budge. I'm in charge of human resources, you're in charge if grand strategy so listen to me when I tell you about people stuff!}”

Mika clicked her tongue almost without changing her expression at all. She was the de facto brains behind their entire operation and she thought this was an unnecessarily high risk to take. _Letting them escape and sending a double agent with them is highly risky. With the Imperial Army on the rise on three fronts, we do not have the leisure time to wait for her to report back. There is also the possibility that she will switch allegiance completely._

“{Y-You can click your tongue at me all you want. What's done is done.}” _I swear she was really going to have faux radio transmissions to guilt them into thinking they are responsible for their comrades being shot. Or use some kind of loophole in the rules to put them through hell. I didn't get the impression from her that she was this kind of ruthless person, but I guess everyone_ _reacts to war differently. Carpacio has been getting on my nerves with that Ooarai girl for a full week now._ “{What are we going to do about the IJA anyway? That's your job.}”

“{They are quite inconvenient. For now, retain all operations and prepare for operation Normandy. I will inform you when our general strategy changes.}” For all of Mika's qualities, she was not someone that did well with war in general. A single battle, a prolonged battle, a series of battles, but not the continued and expanded turmoil of war. To become accomplished, to pull off the grand scheme she thought of when she realized how far the numbers were skewing the results, she needed to be much tougher, much colder. Her troops knew that she wasn't really like that, but she needed to do it anyway. Both for her own sake and for that of her allies.

“{We can't really send in anyone to spy on them. It's one thing when the armies have a small age range, but someone in their late teens is gonna stick out like a sore thumb over there.}” Anchovy, the same as Mika, used English to communicate. Mika spoke no Italian and Anchovy's knowledge of Finnish was limited to a few words like _Alarm, Bathroom, Food, Bathroom Urgently_ and so on. “{What are they even doing here? I'm just glad we didn't lose anyone when Chi-Ha-Tan went down the river.}”

 _The drain. It is down the drain_. “{I have suspicions on what caused them to involve themselves and what their goal is. But without more conclusive information, I cannot adjust our strategy based on their presence.}”

“{The allies and the axis are still around. Maybe we get lucky and they pick a fight with the IJA and they all kill each other.}” Anchovy sat down on a folding chair, leaned back, crossing her arms and legs. “{But we probably don't get lucky.}”

“{Have you dealt with your reservations regarding operation Normandy?}” _She should have come around by now. I need to be able to trust her and not micromanage the Italians._

“{No. But I know better than to say we can't do it. If we want to get first and second place in this, we can't be the goody two shoes, I know that.}” _Deep down I don't really care that much. The arrogant Germans got this coming a long time now and the dumb Americans and stuck up British don't really deserve any better either. This is gonna be some serious fireworks. Lots of people are gonna die._ “{I still think we could have gone with a lottery.}”

“{That would simply create unnecessary risk. Being a soldier is a job of duty. Following orders is not open for debate and neither is the content of the orders.}”

“{Yes, yes, you said that like a dozen times already. I still don't like it.}”

“{Do you want to win?}”

“{Of course I do. That's why we teamed up with you in the first place.}” _I wish I could just go and say we would have won on our own, but this is way different from a normal tankery match. There's almost no restrictions on the amount of tanks and gear you can bring into this. Saunders had so many tanks they could have driven circles around us. And then they teamed up with Gloriana, who has that stupid Darjeeling so you can't even count on tricking the Americans. Well, we teamed up way before that, but the alliance thing just made everything worse for us._

“{I must say I was impressed by how well your people handled the attack on the Axis last night.}”

“{Of course! What we lack in money we make- hey, are you being sarcastic?}”

Mika didn't react whatsoever to that accusation. “{I see no reason to be sarcastic. Your people completed a mission at almost no loss of life. The final death toll was just slightly above my best scenario estimation.}”

 _I'm sure the two that were tasked with kidnapping Ooarai's translator are dead. Mika must be thinking that too. They didn't check in, which meant that something went wrong. The distraction itself was a success, and the operation as a whole was also successful… losing two people hurts more than I expected, even though I knew this was a relatively high risk mission._ “{All those distractions, including that assault on the freshly unified Axis, only to raise their paranoid instincts and jump at the kidnapping of their translator. And that too was a distraction. We learn anything useful from the data we stole?}”

“{The data is still being evaluated. There was a lot more than I anticipated. A slight miscalculation on my part. For reasons unknown to me, Ooarai and Kuromorimine kept their confidential data in the same tent.}”

“{Kinda stupid.}” Anchovy was aware that she wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed. She wasn't an idiot, but when it came to strategy, especially grand strategy, Mika was leagues ahead of her. But because this was the case, Mika didn't want to be the victor of the war herself. As she told Anchovy, the ones that were really making all the decisions remained in the shadow of those that appeared to make the decisions.

“{Don't underestimate the Axis. To fight two Nishizumis is a dangerous endeavor, no matter how much we plan or how many contingencies we have.}”

“{You know, I never thought you'd be **this** kind of person.}”

“{I, and much of my army, thought that the Italians are idiots. A preconception that was corrected after we begun working with you.}”

“{Hey.}”

“{Why did you insist on that girl being the double agent?}” Mika changed the topic because she was making adjustments to the plans for their next operation. On the table before her was a large map that had dozens of circles, triangles and comments written in small font sizes on it. _If this operation succeeds, it will severely cripple the ability of both the Axis and the Allies to move around._

“{She looks innocent, right?}” Anchovy smirked wide. _Oh man are they gonna be in for a surprise when they realize just who they kidnapped._ _I wouldn't wanna be them._

=== Eisenkreuz Imouto ===

 _My feet hurt! I'm thirsty! I don't wanna walk anymore. I wanna make out with Yukari! Erika, you seriously need a shower, you smell like unpronounceable things._ Erwin's head was just full of thoughts like that. _I really wish I had a change of underwear. Or better shoes. Or a yuri manga. I'm horny. Yukari's butt is cute._ There were some more questionable thoughts as well.

“{Do we know where we're going?}” _I wanna ask Yukari to carry me, but I think I would totally freak out._ _Not to mention that I can't just let her think I'm weak. Yukari definitely likes the strong, independent type, like Miho._

“{Easy enough with the sun in the sky. That way is west. We ended up in the south. There's a big ass river running to the south of the cliff at the back of our base. If we reach the river, we go north and we'll hit the base in no time flat.}” Erika tried to sound optimistic. _We'll probably have to pick up the pace if we're gonna make it to the base before nightfall. Even if we march all day long, we went pretty damn fast on that bike. I worry about Maho…_ A sudden wave of depression and hopelessness hit Erika. _I still can't believe Maho… my Maho is a siscon._ Letting out a huge sigh that wasn't intended to be heard by anyone, Erika didn't even notice until Yukari jumped ahead a few steps and looked at her from the side. “{What?}”

As usual, Yukari couldn't really communicate with Erika and shot a pleading look towards Erwin, who translated for her. “What are you sighing for?”

“{We got no idea what happened at the base after we left. We can't even send word to HQ about where we are or that we're in one piece.}” Erika's stomach grumbled. “{And that we got nothing to eat.}”

“I'm hungry too. But we'll have to hold out until we get back. Erwin isn't complaining. We should learn from her.” Yukari saying this made it awkward because Erwin had to talk about herself in the third person now.

“No more translating, it tires me out.” _Why the heck didn't we get more than one person to learn German? There's two powerhouse schools out there that use it._ _And sorry Yukari! I'm complaining a whole lot in my head._

Marching and marching some more in the continuously rising sun, Erwin was the first to need a break. After fifteen more minutes of walking, they found a spot where they could take a break without being wide out in the open. A small patch of forest, so small that one could walk around the patch in five minutes, provided adequate cover for them and a bit of shade. Not that the shade was helping a whole lot when you're thirsty, hungry and groggy.

“A kingdom for a bottle of soda...” _Maybe I'll just jump into that river Erika mentioned when we get there. If we get there. Before we die of old age._

“Soda actually makes you even thirstier. Mineral water is best in situations like this.” Yukari was full of general purpose wisdom relating to activities like marching long distances.

“{This reminds me of a survival movie where two people were trapped in a spaceship and one of them had to drink the piss of the other.}” Erika just wanted to get her mind off of drinking and water, so she remembered something gross.

“I am definitely not translating that.” Erwin felt like she wouldn't be able to look at lemonade for a while.”

With the conversation suddenly having died off, Erwin felt responsible for starting it back up. The more they talked – as long as it wasn't about water or soda or questionable movie choices – the less they thought about their thirst. “{What was your training like?}” Saying it in German and then again in Japanese, Erwin wanted to know what exactly they had gone through to become almost superhuman like this.

Yukari was quicker to respond than Erika. “Wake up at four in the morning. Make a special protein shake, raw eggs, some bacon, protein powder, some vegetables for the taste. Go running for twenty kilometers. Take a cold shower. Usually it is around five thirty then. Get dressed for the academy. Attend training exercises. During lunch break, two hundred situps, push ups, a few other exercises and skip rope jumping. Before lunch is over, I eat a home made lunch that I prepare in the evenings. Then-”

“Okay, I get it, G.I. Joe.” Erwin tried to cut her off, already feeling exhausted just listening to that insane workout regiment.

“At four, after the traditional exercises at the academy, I start personal training.”

“You **start**? What is that stuff in the morning then?!”

“I start with some light weight lifting. Currently it's dumbbells weighting each around forty kilos. After that is more running, twenty kilometers again, this time faster. Shooting practice comes after the running to simulate combat exhaustion. Then I train my lower back, my shoulders and my other muscles by pulling old car tires. It is usually around seven by now, at which point I go home to cook myself something filling and nourishing. After dinner I rest by taking another shower and then I prepare the lunch for the next day. After that I do some stretching and flexibility exercises and study for the academy. I go to bed at midnight.”

Erwin was at a complete loss for words. Yukari was counting her exercises like they were some sort of checklist she went through. And she didn't have to pause even once to think about the next step. _Is that even something a human can endure? I think I would snap in half trying to do that. Or end up dead. But that sure explains how strong she is. I was honestly wondering why I never saw her hang out with Miho and the others anymore. Although they were all doing their own individual training I guess. I was, too._

“{So she trains a lot?}” Erika had to fake not understanding the long list.

“{If this was a video game she would be level 99 and the rest of us are around level 20 or something. Did you also do crazy training?}” Now it was Yukari who couldn't understand the conversation.

As it turned out, Erika had a routine that was very similar to Yukari's but less archaic and more focused on having access to actual training machines. She also got one more hour of sleep a day compared to Yukari.

Erwin felt sore after hearing both of their regiments. “And I thought I was getting a real workout with the infantry training we did.” _No wonder Yukari only participated in that on rare occasions. She'd make all of us look like amateurs. I mean, technically speaking, we are amateurs, but come on._ “{Did everyone at Kuromorimine go through infantry training?}”

“{No. We have four groups, each with their own assigned training regiment. A select handful of us had their own routines, like me. Tankery, Infantry, Logistics and Maintenance. Commander Maho knew from the start that logistics and maintenance would play a big role in making a sustained war effort, so we have over thirty people just doing those two and foregoing other training.}”

“{We don't have the numbers for that. Would be nice to have like a hundred people.}”

“{At the beginning of the war, our personnel count was 245 people. Out of those, 160 were trained specifically for tankery strategy and maneuvers in this war. Depending on our deploying situation, we can field forty to fifty tanks at the same time. Of those 160, 50 also received infantry training. Of the remaining 85 people, fifty people specialized in infantry operations, bringing the total to fifty infantry specialists and fifty trained infantry.}” Erika finished her explanation and looked at Erwin, who seemed very impressed. “{Ooarai needs to recruit more people.}”

“{Even if we did, tanks for use don't just magically appear out of nowhere.}” Erwin usually liked to exert an almost arrogant and very confident aura, but in this situation, sitting between two human weapons, that seemed completely misplaced.

“{Before the war begun we had specialized intelligence regarding the numbers of the armies we would be fighting. As expected, the Americans are numerically speaking the greatest threat. They brought 280 trained individuals with them. The British Empire is recorded as having brought 137 soldiers. The part of the French that is currently a part of the Allied Forces had… around a hundred people flat if memory serves.}”

“{So you have really good memory too. Is there anything you can't do?}”

“{There are a few things. I would rather not go into that.}” Erika knew that she had one really big fatal weakness that she definitely should fix, but that was easier said than done. Especially now that so many of the Kuromorimine girls looked up to her she couldn't just ask one of them for help with something like that.

“I think we should go before the sun gets any higher. It looks like it is gonna be really hot today.” Yukari didn't need to try very hard to keep up with a conversation she couldn't really understand. She picked up that it was something about numbers, soldiers and the armies. It wasn't hard to guess what they were talking about.

“Ugh,” was really all Erwin could muster to the suggestion of going back to marching.

Fifteen minutes passed and the sun was mercilessly beaming down on them now, high in zenith. Not a cloud was in sight, not a single tree dared to grow anywhere near their route and no hill was conveniently offering shade. A single, uninterrupted walk through the now boiling sun of noon. Tall grass was giving off that particular smell that one could only find way out in nature on a hot day. Soon they could hear the river over the sound of their foot steps and the green that refused to stay down as they stepped on it. For how draining it was to march on an empty stomach, the artificial nature around them was doing its best to distract them from that.

“{I wanna catch something and grill it.}” Erika just blurted that out without warning after her stomach wouldn't stop grumbling.

“{Do you even know how to skin and gut something?}” Erwin felt grossed out by this train of thought. She wasn't **that** hungry just yet.

“{Fish, yes. Other stuff not so much.}” _Maybe if I keep talking..._

“{I didn't take you for the type to know how to cook.}”

“{The army expects a certain level of self-sufficient capability of its top executives.}” _The truth is that I like fishing to sort out my thoughts._

“What are you two talking about?” Yukari, who had been at the rear, was curious, and also a little bored with herself.

“Fish, basically.” Erwin moved her shoulders back and forth, feeling sore. “I hope next time they kidnap me they put me down in a position that doesn't screw up my shoulders. It's nothing, really, just annoying.” Trying to maintain her usual overconfident attitude was difficult at best in a situation like this.

“You think there is any in the river up ahead? We should see it any second now.” And exactly as Yukari predicted, the river came into view a few steps later.

None of them had the energy or motivation to run up there. Twelve more minutes passed before they got to the edge of the riverbed. “It's not that deep.” _I mean, you gotta figure it isn't. They have to be pumping that water out of the ship and then cycle it through._ Kneeling down and dipping her hand into the water, Erwin licked her fingers. _I'm impressed that's not just plain seawater though. Would be a lot cheaper._ _Saying that out loud would totally break the illusion of real though, so…_ Scooping water with both her hands from the river, Erwin leaned in too much and before she knew it, her face was mere centimeters from the river itself, having fallen forward.

“What are you doing?” Yukari was preventing her from falling into the river by grabbing the back of her uniform. But luck just wasn't on their side. The very ground that Yukari stood on couldn't withstand the burden of two people's weight and gravity – and gave in. The splash was big enough to douse Erika, right next to Yukari but on safe ground.

Already being wet from head to toe, Erika just accepted her fate and jumped into the river herself, reaching all the way to her shoulders. “{Who said this isn't shallow?!}” A little panicked, Erika tried desperately to calm down.

They were all pretty much the same height, which meant that Yukari and Erwin were both submerged all the way to their shoulders. “{We can still stand. What's the problem?}” Erwin was completely unfazed by it. “Ugh… I should have listened to Caesar and brought more spare clothes...”

“I have some spares. I can give you some dry clothes when we get back to base.” Yukari figured that since they were both the same height, her things would fit.

 _The shirt is gonna be so loose…_ “Thanks. Appreciate it.”

Erika tried to climb out of the river and immediately caused more of the ground to break and fall back in, submerged completely for a brief moment. Coming up, gasping for air like a fish and panic written all over her face, she couldn't pretend that didn't happen.

“{You can't swim?}”

“{Of course I can swim!}” To prove a point, Erika not only demonstrated that she could swim but also knew how to play dead man. Floating for a half a meter, she got back on her feet. “{I just hate diving.}”

“Oh, that's a great idea.” Yukari couldn't follow their conversation, as usual, and so she took some initiative, got on her back and started kicking the water, swimming with the flower of the river.

“{Looks like Yukari is opting for getting to base this way.}” Erwin wasn't too hot on the idea, but marching through the sun was not really a better option. Not to mention that this was faster than marching. Trying to do it the same way Yukari and Erika had done, Erwin got on her back and immediately sunk like a rock. Coming up, spitting a bit of water, Erwin looked more annoyed with herself than anything else. “The hard way then.” Instead of just floating, Erwin used both her arms and legs to swim backwards, with the flow of the river.

Erika was left behind for a full thirty seconds before she got over herself and followed the other two. _I can never tell anyone that **this** is how I got back to base._

=== Eisenkreuz Imouto ===

Maho was flapping her lips in a moment when she thought nobody could see her, other than Miho. They had also figured out a way to talk to each other without talking and without, technically, violating the language barrier. All documents were in Japanese simply because speaking a language was difficult enough – expecting high school girls to also learn to properly write up military documents in a language they generally hadn't touched until several months ago was just unreasonable. Since the documents itself were primarily for the girls and not the audience, it was decided to use Japanese for all documents, although it was not mandatory. Secret messages or top secret documents could be written in another language if whoever made the document wanted to do that.

Miho read the tiny, tiny writing on the edge of the inventory paper she was holding. _Do you want to take a lunch break?_ Miho scribbled down an answer. The commanders often marked or noted things on documents so it didn't occur to anyone that she was secretly communicating with her sister.

Writing her answer and handing the document over, Miho prodded her sister's foot with her own under the table. One prod meant _yes_ , two prods meant _no_. Three prods meant _I changed my mind_.

It was, in a way, the middle of the day now, at three in the afternoon. The Axis was still in full recovery mode and Bellwall had conveniently waited until almost high noon to tell the other Axis members that their commander was MIA.

 _You think we can get away with eating in our tent so we can talk_? The message came from Miho, who was regretting not picking up German more and more with every second. It was bad enough that she couldn't be openly flirtatious with the girl she liked, no, she couldn't even talk to her publicly. For all of Miho's qualities, she didn't excel at self-restraint with things like this, or so she found out now.

Maho prodded her sister's foot twice. The next message that Miho got was very commander-like. _We have to show we are on top of things. Everyone is worried about how hard we got hit._ The font was even tinier than before and Miho had to quint to read it.

Exchanging a meaningful and secretive look, the two sisters got up at the same time, heading to where one might procure food. And to their surprise, there was a bit of a spectacle going on. Or not so much a spectacle as a bloodbath of some kind. Left and right, on top of crates and beside, gulping down refilled bottles of water or just panting for air, at least forty girls were just barely hanging in there. And the root of the problem, the cause of the disaster, the origin of the pain was a number of very large pots, emitting a smell that would most definitely have belonged to lava if the universe was more accurate with how smell and taste correlated.

“I wonder what everyone is complaining about?” Hana was sitting with Saori a little by the side, an empty plate in front of her while Saori's was still half full. And they were not the only duo there. Saemonza and Oryou were there as well, the former bravely and valiantly swallowing her complaints and the latter, having already finished, downing the largest containers of water that she could carry.

The chaos didn't end there yet. Behind the large pot, at the food station, was Mako, who was currently being yelled at by Sodoko, whose lips were so red and somewhat swollen that she looked comical doing the yelling.

“Pipe down. You're the one that said it's fine if it's a little spicy.” Mako, known among both armies for her lack of enthusiasm and being able to sleep just about anywhere, had been chosen as the stand-in for Erwin, whose turn it had been to make food. And what a disaster that had turned out to be. The spiciness of Mako's chilly and rice could wake the dead, or so her customers were saying.

“A **little** spicy I said! I didn't mention anything about making sulfuric acid! You could melt through a tank's armor with this! It isn't fit for human consumption.”

“So you're not human? You cleaned your plate.”

“Because I don't wanna waste food!” _That you made_. “We can't afford to be that picky.” _And when am I ever gonna get another chance to eat something you made?_ “Look at the battlefield you created!”

“They look happy to me. Faces all red and flushed and stuff. Like they're in love.”

“ **They faces are red because they're overheating**!” Sodoko was literally jumping up and down on the spot, wildly flailing her arms at Mako, who just took the opportunity to shove a large spoonful of pure chilly into Sodoko's mouth, with masterful precision. Sodoko's agony scream could be heard through most of the base.

At the same time, Miho was desperately looking for a way to escape the situation that Maho's personality for show had created. Being the iron general, she was expected to not fear anything – especially not mere food. And with Miho being her sister and the general commander of Ooarai, of course she was expected to suck it up and meet the example her older sister was setting.

The smell alone was making their noses itch and Mako just filled their dishes with a lot more than they wanted – which was none. Sitting down, they both could feel a lot of eyes on them. Maho suppressed her right hand shaking and swallowed her regrets first. _This is going to be fine. I need to set an example for Miho, too. And we can't afford to waste food. Mother always says that being a picky eater is not the Nishizumi way… now that I think about it, that doesn't have anything to do with tankery and our way. Do… do I really have to eat this? It looks and smells like it could be used as tank fuel. No… others have eaten it so it must at least not be deadly. H-Here we go…_ Maho filled one large spoon worth with chilly and rice and hesitated. _W-What are you waiting for, Nishizumi Maho? Is this the extent of your resolve?_ Fired up by thinking to herself like that, she shoved the devil's treat into her mouth and immediately felt like someone had filled her mouth with pure alcohol and then dropped a match stick into there. The pain was enough to make tears shoot to her eyes. If she could have formed a single decent thought, she would have wanted to spit it out. But her pride and the expectations of everyone were weighting her down. A second spoon, and a third. _Ah… I'm gonna die_.

Miho wasn't doing any better. Everyone from Ooarai was watching her and after Maho was valiantly shoveling the chilly into her mouth, she had to follow her example. Miho was not as strong as Maho and immediately started coughing after the first spoon, tears running down her cheeks and her chest suddenly on fire. Both sisters continued to eat, unwilling to set a bad example for their troops. And at the same time, they both regretted being the commander like never before.

The younger Nishizumi was done first, losing control and just quickly gorging down the food to get it over with. Her face was almost as red as the food had been and her stomach was already giving her some trouble. Maho was pacing herself more, able to take the pain as she kept going. _Ooarai has some scary people if they can eat this normally_.

Seeing their commanders put in the effort, and put away the chilly, those that had considered going hungry for the time being reconsidered and subjected themselves to the same pain and agony as everyone else.

Both commanders were saved by the timely arrival of their missing super soldiers and translator. The trio was soaked to the bone and their mood left quite a lot to be desired. Searching for their commanders first and foremost, they unintentionally managed to save them from being the center of attention and an example for others to commit chilly suicide.

The five of them retreated to a nearby and empty tent. Miho and Maho both couldn't talk a whole lot without being in pain and luckily there was not much need for them to talk. Erika gave her report and Erwin translated for Miho.

“{At an unknown time last night, we recovered private Matsumoto from hostile captivity and dispatched two hostiles by force. We took possession of their vehicle in an attempt to return to base. The vehicle broke down and I judged that we would not be able to repair it without a mechanic. We commenced walking before dawn. We continued walking for several hours until we rested. During the resting, private Matsumoto regained consciousness. At an unknown time shortly after that, estimated to be between zero five hundred and zero eight hundred hours, we encountered a highly trained and well organized army approaching from the southern territory, where we had ended up. The army advanced towards our location and we quickly retreated. We were not pursued, for reasons unknown. I surmise that we were not seen. We have little detail regarding the unknown army.}” Erika made no attempt to apologize for that. Under the circumstances, it was almost a miracle they had gotten back in one piece. _If the lesser schools had still been around, we might not have been so lucky_.

Miho and Maho thanked Erika and Yukari for their service and immediately moved to business. While two of the three were dismissed, they needed Erwin for a little while longer. “{Speak candidly. What do you make of the unknown army?}” Maho didn't want routine and protocol to get in the way.

“{Most likely an outside force that is intent on forcing the conflict between us and the allied forces.}” _It's not like I can bring up the pro league here, It's one thing to talk about that out there, where nobody was watching. Although, come to think of it, they probably were watching and we're gonna get a warning issued. Shit._

Maho gave Miho a quick look that didn't really mean anything specific. “Erwin, find some dry clothes and some towels. I'll need your help coordinating with our allies. Before you go, translate this for me.” Relaying orders to Maho through Erwin was still as inconvenient as ever, but Maho had planned on doing the same thing.

Fifteen minutes later, twenty-five total after the three had returned, a joint force of nine soldiers departed in three Krupp Protze, a six wheeler type truck without roof and a large cargo space that Kuromorimine used frequently. Their mission was simple, in a way. Find out what exactly the new threat from the south was. The rules were equally simple. Don't engage. Bring everyone back alive.

Kuromorimine's part in the scouting mission was limited to threetrained infantry women and the vehicles being lent to Ooarai. The other six were split into two categories. The drivers; Mako, Satoko, Momoga. The guards; Piyotan, Saemonza and Akebi.

“I'm worried about this new army from the south.” Finding a quiet place to talk away from prying eyes and drones was not easy. It was a little unbecoming of them, but Miho and Maho had retreated inside Miho's tank and closed the hatch to talk privately. “If Erika and Yukari don't know who they belong to, that means it isn't anyone we're familiar with fighting.” Miho paused. “My mouth still hurts. We're really unlucky. Bellwall's commander is still missing, we got robbed, Mako messes up everyone's food, there's a new army coming from the south… it's like someone has it out for us.”

“Erwin, Yukari and Erika encountering that new army while it is still far away is a stroke of luck.” Maho didn't want to adopt a pessimistic outlook just yet. “It's true that we're in a bad situation but… isn't it odd to have an army come from the south?”

“Now that you say it… if they wanted to attack us, it would have been easier to come from the east. If they wanted to attack the allies, the west. Pravda is in the north and Chi-Ha-Tan were also in the west last we heard.”

“You're a more creative thinker than me, Miho. What do you make of it?”

“The tournament is running on for too long so they are sending in someone to force the conflict or get rid of whoever is left.”

“In that case, coming from the south makes no sense.”

“If they are **only** coming from the south, yes.” Miho felt the little hairs on her neck stand up. “We need to send a scouting mission to the east. If there is another army over there, we will have to decide how we fight soon.”

Maho understood why Miho didn't even mention the possibility of retreat. _If Ooarai was on their own, they might be able to withdraw from this position and evade any aggressors, even a really large army. But now that they were so intimately tied with us, there is no escaping. Bellwall won't be able to operate well without their leader and the time we would need to break camp might well exceed what time we have before an eventual aggressor reaches us._ “In the event of an enemy to the east, we have pretty much two choices. Take everything we need for one final battle, push west and fight it out with the allied forces. Or we defeat the encroaching enemy first and take our time taking the fight to the allies.”

“There are worse scenarios still.” Miho liked to have contingencies prepared. “If there is not only an army to the south but every edge of the ship, north, south, east and west… that might force Pravda and the Allies into action, possibly against us.”

“And Chi-Ha-Tan.”

“There's so many variables… do you think Pravda will tell us if there's an enemy to the north?”

“We have no obligation to warn them. This is a war, not a friendship building exercise.”

“You're merciless, sis.” Miho thought about the possibility of Pravda unexpectedly being confronted by a large force from the pro league. _They'd be done for._ “Come to think of it, there is still the matter with Katyusha and our deal with Pravda regarding that.”

“We have bigger issues now. For all we know, the Italians have her.”

“I'm surprised we still have no idea where they made camp.”

“If there is an army in the south and yet we know of no army to the south, that would mean they are most likely there.” Maho was thinking about things very rationally, like usual.

 _That sounds so reasonable and logical that I'm doubting it. They were so careful about manipulating everyone else while staying hidden. For all our fighting and bravery, they might be the most skilled of us at war._ “We might be lucky and the professional league takes out both Pravda and Anzio for us.”

“In any case, before we commit to anything, we need information. Mother always says that crushing the enemy with overwhelming force is the Nishizumi way, but that is a dangerous path to take in war.”

“I feel bad, breaking the rules like this. But having to run everything through Erwin is really tiring for all three of us.”

“When we agreed to ally with Ooarai, I knew there would be a language barrier, but I didn't anticipate it would be this much.”

“For next year, if there is another event next year, I am learning enough German to translate myself.”

“I'll be cheering you on.”

“Speaking of studying, are you gonna be okay with your grades?”

“You don't believe in your older sister to have good grades?”

Miho slightly averted her eyes. “I trust you.”

“I saw that. You looked away.”

“Must be shadows.”

“You're such a terrible liar, Miho.”

“I don't wanna hear that from you.”

“Nobody suspects I am much kinder than I let on!”

“Acting and lying are different things!”

Maho chuckled. “We stole away to talk about this in private?”

“Mom is gonna court martial us.”

“Me. She's gonna court martial me. You're not in any trouble because you're off doing your own Nishizumi style thing!”

“Do you want your little sis to comfort you? What a wimpy older sis I have.” Miho bend forward, got on her knees and crawled half a step towards Maho, who sat on the iron floor. “I could do that.”

“Sorry Miho, but with everything that is going on I can't really find the mood. But I'm glad you're here with me. If I had to deal with the pro league all on my own I'd definitely end up charging right into battle and probably get my ass handed to me.”

“Happy to be of service.” Sitting down, Miho fixed her bangs. “You know, you think Mom signed off on the pro league's involvement?”

“Whoever gave the order is gonna wind up five centimeters tall and scarred for life if they went over her head.”

“I wish Mom was as expressive with the rest of her feelings as she can be with her anger.”

“Mother is… Mother. There's no changing her. Sometimes I do wonder how she and dad managed to marry.”

“You call him dad?”

“What? You do too.”

“Yeah, but you call Mom _Mother_ , you know? She gets all the respect and he doesn't.”

“It's not like that.”

“He's hardly around so it's easier to call him dad, right?”

“Yeah. Honestly, I see a lot of the pro league people around the house more than dad.”

“I miss talking to you like this.”

“Making fun of dad together?”

“We're not making fun of him!”

“I know what you meant.”

“So making fun of Miho then?!” Talking about herself in the third person, Miho looked as upset as someone with a huge smile on their face possibly could. “I'm happy we can be together like this. Even make fun of each other.”

“Mother would have our hides if she knew.”

“I wonder what would upset her more, that we both like girls or that we like each other.”

“And I try not to think about a situation where I have to confront either of those.”

“Coward.”

Now it was Maho's turn to look angry with a smile. “I am most definitely not-”

“Then you'll be fine telling Mom that you're into girls, right? And me too.”

“That's not bravery, that is foolishness!”

Miho got on her feet, squatted, angled her elbows and moved them up and down while making chicken noises.

“That is not going to work Miho. I do want some chicken soup now...”

“With the pro league looming on the horizon, we'll be out of here soon.”

“That sounded really cool.”

Miho cleared her throat, trying to sound more like her mother. “With the pro league looming on the horizon.”

“You sound nothing like Mother.”

“I do! A little!”

“Not even close.”

“Stupid sis.”

“Stupid _older_ sis, for you!”

Someone banged on the tank from above. “Commander! And if think the Kuromorimine commander is in there too! Alice is rotating in the situation tent because you both went AWOL. We just got information from the brokers! And everyone is going nuts over it!” The belonged to Kawashima Momo, who was usually inseparable from Anzu, Ooarai's student council president.

Duty was, in the literal sense of the word, calling for them.

=== Panzer Halt ===


End file.
